


complementary souls

by chixips



Category: Winx Club
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, F/M, Romance, Slow Burn, hi i fixed season three's bs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:42:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 46,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chixips/pseuds/chixips
Summary: "it should piss him off. he should be angry. people who had done the same in the past had died torturous deaths. they weren’t allowed to disrespect him like this. he should be angry with her - put her in her place and show her to never disrespect him ever again.but he wasn’t angry. weirdly enough, he wasn’t even pissed off about it."; season 3, valcy.
Relationships: Darcy/Riven (Winx Club), Icy/Valtor | Baltor (Winx Club)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome~~  
> I may or may not have rewritten the entirety of season three just to give this amazing and way too underrated ship some justice. :)  
> I started writing this at the end of August and finished it mid-October and with the special help of **xeadasreign** , I can publish it now one by one. :') As I finished writing this story, I should be able to upload the chapters regularly too! :D 
> 
> Thank you for reading & have fun reading! :3
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own this show, its mentioned characters and places.
> 
> warnings: lots of swearing and cursing, blood, mildly descripted violence, irresponsible use of alcohol, sexual content (later). this is a villain-centered story, don’t expect good morals and flowers.

he set _fire_ to the world around them  
but never let a flame touch _her_.

#### part I

_will we ever be more than nothing?_

**~*~**

##### wednesday, august 29

— it was dark. black. no sight of light anywhere. not that she could judge, she couldn’t even move her pinky. she couldn’t do anything, except for opening and closing her eyes which didn’t even make a difference. it was dark outside and it was dark inside. and both sucked.

she didn’t hear anything. she was certain there were noises all around her - last time she saw something, _they_ had brought her into a spaceship - but she couldn’t hear anything. silent. muted.

icy closed her eyes - as if that would make a difference at all - and sighed. even breathing was hard when you were trapped inside of a block of ice. she should know. she was the one trapping other people in blocks of ice, not vice versa.

it was stupid, _no_ , it was absolutely hideous.

what were they thinking?

trapping her in a block of ice - in a part of _herself_ \- would keep her locked away and keep them their peace and happiness?

who in the _entirety_ of the magical dimension would come up with such a foolish idea? how many brain cells had they even used to decide their punishment? it very well couldn’t have been more than three.

she wasn’t complaining. this was _their_ idiocy, not hers. it was _their_ fault if they really thought they would never see her again. they would see her again and this time, they wouldn’t win again.

this time they wouldn’t know what hit them.

she knew she had sworn this before but this time she was sure of it - this time she had a _feeling_ she wouldn’t fail again.

something changed. it was still dark but icy felt an unbearable pressure over her head. as if she was falling. why would she fall?

her eyes closed slowly, she felt herself becoming more tired. the pressure was too heavy to stay awake, to stay conscious. it became colder. she almost fell unconscious—

but then she opened her eyes widely again. she hit something. something jolted through her and the ice block she was still captured in. she landed somewhere. and she could see.

her vision was blurred thanks to the ice but the outside was bright - white and blue tones. she knew they had arrived.

their punishment was a lifetime in the omega dimension.

again, _foolish people._

icy felt a smirk on her lips. she would break out with her sisters, and then she would take revenge.

of course, it would take a while. they had to escape from here - which would be quite the challenge, considering this was _still a prison_ \- and then they had to make a plan on how to become more powerful and to take revenge.

_but first…_

the ice around her cracked slowly until it bursted all around her. she was free. _a lifetime in the omega dimension for sure_. she brushed the rest of the ice shards off her skin, then crossed her arms and looked around.

darcy and stormy were close to her, fortunately. and they definitely could walk away from here. perfect. she took a breath before she positioned herself between darcy and stormy’s blocks of ice.

it was only a matter of seconds until they were free too. stormy fell to the ground while darcy somehow caught her balance before she could fall.  
“welcome to the land of the living,” icy said and helped stormy.

darcy folded her arms over her chest. “i don’t like it here.”

“me neither,” icy started, “and we should leave. i don’t necessarily want to meet whoever is guarding this place.”

but it was too late. just when she finished talking, she heard an animalic scream. icy closed her eyes and took a breath.

_for fuck’s sake._

“that’s an ice snake. they are the guardians of this place,” darcy said and icy tried not to roll her eyes. of course she would know that. she was such a bookworm.

“what do we do?” stormy asked and looked at her.

icy pointed to one what seemed to be a tunnel. “run,” she said.

she even had troubles to not fall to the ground while she was running in heels over ice. she saw darcy almost falling but she caught her balance again, stormy was out of her sight but she heard her sighs and hard breathing.

they had to get out of here _somehow_. she escaped light rock - she could also escape this ugly wasteland, right? but there was just one thing - she only escaped light rock because darkar helped her.

icy was sure they could’ve broken out of that _absurdly disgusting_ monastery but it would’ve taken them a tad longer. she tried not to think about darkar again. he had gotten what he deserved. bloom had literally destroyed his very essence.

_at least one good thing this bitch ever did._

but that meant they could use some help to break out of here too. this was a high security prison. a lone planet in the middle of nowhere. there were plenty of people here who could help them, yet she hadn’t seen anyone yet.

“that’s a dead end, icy!” darcy shouted completely out of breath from behind her.

icy narrowed her eyes. she was right, there was an ice wall right in front of them. but there was also an abyss on the right side. she couldn’t see how deep it was but… they had to leave.

“follow me!” she shouted back, jumping into the abyss, slowing her fall with magic.

she hadn’t waited for an answer but she heard a high pitched squeal by darcy and stormy‘s screaming. they were following her.

she landed on ice, again, her sisters behind her. icy waited for a moment and looked around. they were in the middle of another tunnel, there was only one way.

  
“ouch,” stormy muttered and walked up to her.

“we should get going. i really don’t want to meet that snake,” darcy said. icy didn’t say anything but nodded and led the way.

  
they didn’t run this time. she hadn’t heard the snake in a while and hopefully, it had lost track of them.

“so, what’s the plan?” stormy asked.

“getting out of here, obviously,” icy muttered. she was trying to think of something.

they were slowly reaching the end of the short tunnel. the end of it seemed brighter than the rest of the planet she had seen so far.

“and how do we do that?” darcy asked sceptically.

the end of the tunnel seemed to be a hall. one of the far away suns was shining right into it. they were in an ice canyon. icy scanned it - the walls were high and too smooth to climb.

and then she saw it. she smirked just a little.

“i have an idea,” she said quietly, pointing at the ice block in the middle of the canyon.

she started to walk toward it, but darcy caught her hand before she could reach it.

“you can’t just free a random person, icy. these people are criminals, you don’t know what they are able to do,” she said and frowned.

icy shook off her hand. “so are we,” she said and reached the ice block.

this one was taller than hers had been and she felt a different kind of magic. it was stronger and darker than the ice that had held her. she slowly walked around it until she saw a wooden sign. it was a name tag, a thin layer of frost covering it. she brushed it away and read.

_valtor. punishment: eternal ice._

well, that explained the strong and dark aura she sensed. it came from the eternal ice.

“who is this?” stormy asked and icy brushed the layer of frost from the block.

she saw a pair of light blue eyes, a stern and determined, yet vengeful look in them. that looked _promising._

“his name’s valtor. punished with eternal ice,” darcy read from the name tag while icy still stared into his eyes.

“have you ever heard of him?” she asked darcy. if someone would know about magix’ worst criminals, it was her.

oddly, she shook her head. “never.”

that was strange. she usually knew about everyone and everything.

anyway, this man was probably their best chance to get out of here. even they hadn’t gotten eternal ice and they had done a lot of stuff. so, what had he done?

  
she heard the snake scream from the distance.

“you should free him. i don’t want to turn into snake food,” stormy said and she nodded, putting her hands on the ice.

it took longer than she had needed to free herself and darcy and stormy but she succeeded nonetheless.

he stood in front of her. she was a bit shorter than him. she didn’t have a lot of time to look at him since she had to hide behind him - the snake had appeared right behind her.

she pushed him toward the snake, darcy and stormy ran next to her.

“sorry. either you or us,” she added and crossed her arms. he didn’t do anything for a moment and just looked at the snake until it spit a beam of magic at them.

he reflected its magic with his bare - well, not _bare_ , apparently he was wearing gloves - hand. the snake disappeared into thin air. did he just kill it? like - after just being freed after _who-knows-how-many_ years? impressive.

he turned around, cracked his knuckles and his neck which, in all honesty, made such a disgusting sound she flinched.

“nice one,” stormy admitted, impressed.

“thank you,” he spoke.

now icy was able to look at him closely for the first time. he was wearing a long, burgundy cloak, a white shirt underneath and a black trouser. his hair was wheat blonde and long, flowing all the way down to his back. interesting.

when she looked into his face, she had to correct herself - his eyes weren’t light blue, they were steel blue and something sparkled inside of them but she couldn’t put her fingers around it yet. he had high and sharp cheekbones and pale skin. not quite the ordinary man but she wasn’t disappointed.

“how long were you in there?” darcy dared to ask.

“seventeen years.”

seventeen? she was nineteen - he got sentenced for his life when she had been two years old. that was a long time for being imprisoned in an ice block, all alone with one’s own thoughts.

“were you awake the whole time?” stormy continued asking.

“yes.”

now she was curious too.

“what did you do?” she asked and raised a brow.

he looked at her but she couldn’t define his expression nor his thoughts. he was interesting.

“i thought a lot,” he said in a monotone voice.

“about what?” icy titled her head slightly to the side. she was trying to figure him out and it annoyed her that she couldn’t. but at the same time she was intrigued. he was mysterious and she liked mysteries.

“how to pay revenge and to who,” he said and the hint of a smile appeared on his lips for the split of a second.

 _revenge_? that sounded like a start. a good start. so they were on the same page - wanting to take revenge on those who had brought them here.  
she smiled confidently when she looked him in his eyes.

“so you’re valtor, right?” she started and nodded to the name tag on the ground “why don’t we leave this place behind together? i mean, you’re free now and i’m pretty sure you can’t complain about a little help for your revenge,” she took a step toward him, folding her arms on her chest and looked directly at him “that is of course, if you’ll help us with our revenge too.”

he looked into her eyes for a long moment without saying anything. icy stared back, still smiling and not stepping back. not even thinking about it. she was still trying to figure out what he was thinking, what he was planning. she didn’t know him but she wanted to have control over this situation right now.

she expected a lot - what she hadn’t expected was him smiling as a reply.

“i’d like to discuss more of that later but for now it’s a deal,” he said “i know how to get out of here. if you would follow me, of course.”

icy grinned. “like you said, it’s a deal for now.”

**~*~**

##### friday, august 31

— it was dawn. golden reflections on the water. the sun was shining for a few more minutes before it disappeared until dusk.

icy sat on the edge of a cliff of the omega portal on andros. she was alone. at least no one was with her - she didn’t know if someone was watching her.

she meant valtor with _someone_. they had been together for three days now and she still hadn’t figured out a bit about him. it was both frustrating and exciting. he hadn’t talked a lot but neither had she.

the only time they had had a big conversation had been the same day she had freed him from his ice block. they had both agreed on an alliance for now - they were helping him with his revenge, he was helping them with their revenge. that easy.

there had only been a few things she was able to get about him even though they hadn’t had a one on one conversation.

  
the first was, he was powerful.

of course, that had been obvious since the moment he had killed the snake but she couldn’t have guessed how _strong_ he actually was. they had helped to put a crack into the portal but he had opened it all by himself other than that. it was impressive and dangerous at the same time.

the second was, he expected respect and loyalty.

he hadn’t said it directly but the way he had mentioned something about the mutual revenge helping had made it obvious to her. he was one of the people one didn’t want to betray - because the reason of the betrayal would never be as bad as the punishment.

and the third thing was, he was _fucking arrogant._

this was the thing that made her mad, in some way. she had cracked the portal with darcy and stormy. then, he had _complimented_ her.

_i like your style._

she had acted calm and cool as she was, giving him the same comment. he had smirked and started to open the portal. no bad thing there but later, when they had arrived on andros and he had cursed the guardian mermaids, she had told him _how brillant that move_ was. instead of saying a simple _thank you_ or saying fucking anything, he had smirked and ignored her comment other than that.

and earlier today, darcy had made a comment about _their_ revenge and whenever they’d get it. he had - not yelled but definitely a little angry - told her that his revenge was more important right now and their revenge would happen after they had helped him.

icy hadn’t said anything in that moment - she was still trying to get to know about him without talking to him, to figure him out. so she would keep quiet until she knew him better.

she knew these three things about him now. but she wanted to know a lot more. she didn’t trust him.

the other thing she knew about him was that he was really attractive. it wasn’t necessarily all about his appearance but also his natural elegance, the dark and powerful aura around him. every time they were in the same room, she felt something happening to her magic. she couldn’t explain what it was yet but she was eager to find out.

frankly, it excited her. he was interesting and exciting.

of course though, he was goodlooking. there was something about his cold, dead eyes and his sharp cheekbones that she couldn’t stop thinking about.

_stop it. you sound pathetic._

but it was true. he looked good and she couldn’t deny she liked that about him. she also liked his power and his determinition. if he wasn’t this annoyingly arrogant, she would be even more intrigued.

right now, he was on solaria. he had said he needed something to refresh his powers. whenever he decided to come back. and whatever his plan was.

  
so far, he had only mentioned that he wanted to regain his full strength and then they would get every planet’s magical essence. so that his power would grow even more and he could have his revenge on the dimension.

and there was it - the thing she wanted to know about him so badly. what happened to him? who would he get revenge at?

he hadn’t talked about it yet but she sensed there was something huge.

whatever. as long as she would get her revenge on bloom, sooner or later.

“icy.”

right when she was thinking about him - as if she was thinking about someone else these days - she heard his voice behind her.

she didn’t stand up, nor did she move.

“what is it?”

“who is this?” he asked.

she stood up and turned around to him. he let a magical picture of bloom appear over his hand. she crossed her arms and frowned.

“bloom,” she started “or _princess bloom_ , if you will. she’s the last surviving person of domino and possesses the dragon flame. a really annoying fairy, really. she’s the reason why we were sentenced to omega,” she said.

his expression didn’t change a bit but he raised his left eyebrow a tad. clearly, he was interested.

“bloom.”

•••

— _“bloom.”_

there was a sour taste on his tongue when the name left his mouth. the _”last surviving person”_ of domino, the princess of domino. now, that was interesting. and they seemed to know her.

he had fought against her father in the battle of domino seventeen years ago. her father had died and if he remembered correctly, her mother had too.

  
“what do you know about her?” he asked.

he needed to know more about this girl. if she really was the one to possess the dragon flame then there was a huge chance she could destroy him. but in the same way, he could destroy her.

“she’s grown up on earth, now she’s learning at alfea. faragonda’s favourite.”

it wasn’t icy who answered, it was darcy from behind him. now he heard her footsteps approaching.

“faragonda?”

that was surprising. he assumed she… what had he assumed? he had assumed she died in the battle since the ancestral witches had come back to him right before he was sentenced to omega. but she was alive…

“do you know her?” this time it was stormy who asked.

“she’s one of the people who will feel my revenge,” he said.

so they knew her, obviously. and that bloom did. he guessed that bloom was one of the people they wanted to get revenge on. it all tied them together. he didn’t know yet if he should find this interesting or not.

“who else?” icy asked.

she had kept quiet after she had told him about bloom and she was eyeing him differently than her friends were. actually, she was _quite_ different from her friends in many ways.

during the last couple of days, he had observed all three of them patiently. if he was having an alliance with them, he should know about them and their motives. it was a question about trust and loyalty. if he couldn’t trust them, if he wouldn’t know they were loyal to him, he would risk a lot in an alliance - especially in case of a betrayal.

something he always had to see coming.

stormy was a wild, chaotic person. unpredictable and strong, just like her powers. she was really excited and determined but frankly, she was also naive. if there would be a betrayal, it wouldn’t be her starting it.

darcy, on the other hand, had more potential to betray him. she was elegant, classy even. just like stormy, she was unpredictable and strong but in a different way. from what he knew now, her powers revolved around darkness and illusions, messing with people’s brains. he had to admit, it was frightening, in some way. of course, he was stronger than any of them but even he didn’t know how to prevent a mental spell from happening.

and then there was icy. and he couldn’t figure her out yet _at all_. it annoyed him. he liked it when things were obvious and clear but she wasn’t for him.

naturally, he knew a few things about her; her powers came from ice and snow, she couldn’t have freed him from his block if they didn’t. she was cold. apparently, she liked when she was in control of things, just like he was. which was why he guessed she was doing the same thing with him that he was doing with her - trying to figure him out. an interesting trait about her.

he couldn’t predict if she was able to betray him. he couldn’t predict anything about her. and he didn’t like that. she was hiding something.

she was hiding something behind those clear eyes. something that was not clear to him at all.

“the company of light. faragonda, griffin, saladin,” he finally answered.

stormy let out a surprised noise, darcy looked shocked and icy just raised her eyebrows.

“what a coincidence,” darcy muttered and valtor frowned.

“what do you mean?” he asked.

icy looked him straight in the eye and took a breath. “griffin’s very high on our own revenge list.”

_interesting._

**~*~**


	2. Chapter 2

**~*~**

**wednesday, september 5**

— icy circled around bloom. 

she was fucking _pissed_ . they had watched them coming to andros in their hideout. she had predicted it _days ago_ because they were still the same fucking _naive idiots_ they’ve always been - running around the magical dimension, in order to save everyone and everything. she had seen it coming. 

and she had seen this fight coming.

yet, bloom’s pure _presence_ made her blood boil deep within her. 

she absolutely hated that damned fairy. she wanted nothing more than to wipe that _disgusting_ smile off her face. she wanted to finish her off _forever._

and she almost succeeded - she hit bloom and she fell, she actually _fell_ toward the water. 

icy already felt a rush of excitement rising inside her—

—and then she freed herself from her frozen wings. of course.

of _fucking_ course. 

she flew up way too fast for icy to cope with - bloom used a spell and now icy fell. 

her head burned for a moment and she closed her eyes before she turned around and created an ice island right on the surface of the ocean. 

_to hell with that fairy._

she landed smoothly. she couldn’t see darcy and stormy anywhere around - but she could see bloom and her friends _high-fiving_ each other and laughing. 

icy took a deep breath, closed her eyes and fired a huge ice shard into bloom’s direction. she opened her eyes again when she heard shocked screaming - she had hit bloom right in the back. now she was falling again, unconscious. 

she grinned.

the water splashed when bloom fell into it. she sank and sank… and sank.

hopefully she’d _drown_ there. she deserved that kind of death. 

slowly and torturously. 

although she had hit bloom perfectly, she had also gotten the attention of the rest of the winx. they were flying down to her, yelling and insulting her. icy didn’t bother to answer.

bloom would die there, hopefully, she didn’t have a lot to worry about. 

they started to attack her - colourful spheres were making their way toward her. icy dodged them all with a flick of her wrist. 

“attacking from the back is _really_ lame,” musa screamed at her and icy had to roll her eyes. 

“and unfair,” flora added quickly. 

“in case you haven’t noticed this in the last few years, _nothing_ is fair,” icy replied and dodged another attack. she was getting tired of this. 

seconds after sending a blizzard to the rest of the winx, she looked into the direction bloom had fallen into. 

and she couldn’t _fucking_ believe her eyes.

there was a temple rising out of the water. she could see the familiar red hair. and she could see a _familiar burgundy cloak_. 

what for the dragon’s sake was he _doing_?

tecna and layla threw another round of light green and pink spells at her, then musa seemed to notice the very same thing icy had seen.

“bloom’s there, guys!” she shouted. 

suddenly, they had lost all interest in her. 

icy stood on her little ice island for a few more moments, watching valtor walking around the temple and _talking_ with bloom. 

what the _fuck_ was he doing?

she had made it perfectly _clear_ that bloom was her revenge. _her revenge_.

she didn’t give a single _fuck_ if he had a connection to bloom if he wanted to take revenge on the company of light but _this_ was unacceptable. 

she had been _so incredibly close_ to finally kiling bloom - and then he just _fucked_ that up. 

she didn’t want to see another fucking second of this. she didn’t want to see him for the rest of the fucking day, that was. 

icy teleported herself back to their hideout. 

_how dare he?_

they had an alliance for a week, for one goddamned week. and he had already done something completely against their rules - their mutual rules. 

he had broken her trust, her _freshly built_ trust that she needed to have. because without at least the tiniest bit of trust, there was no way there could ever be an alliance.

and she was pretty damn sure, if this had been _her_ saving one of the people _he_ wanted to take revenge on, he would’ve destroyed her in a damn second. 

but of course, if _he_ was doing that, it would be just _fucking fine._

it had been a week and his arrogance already pissed her off. 

**~*~**

**friday, september 7**

  
  


— darkness had set over andros. the moon was shining brightly this night. a little _too_ bright for his taste. 

he sat on the rocky armchair he had created and watched espero quietly. it was his goal for tomorrow to get their spells. he already possessed andros’ and solaria’s spells, espero would be number three of a lot more planets. 

he hadn’t made up his mind yet about which planet would be next up after espero but he’d know. 

it was dawn on espero, the people in the capital city were going home peacefully. _that would change soon_.

valtor heard footsteps approaching. he knew it was icy. he had already spent enough time with all three of them to differ their footsteps. 

stormy’s were quick and loud, darcy’s were slow and loud - icy’s were slow and quiet. which was why he needed a long moment to actually hear them. 

he didn’t turn around, rather watched how her shadow fell upon the wall he was watching espero through. she stood still behind him.

“are you just going to stand there or do you have something on your mind?” he asked casually, not even moving his fingers. 

it still bothered him that he couldn’t figure out more about her. she was still a little riddle to him. it also hadn’t helped that she had ignored him for a few days now.

“why did you save bloom?” she asked quietly. there was something dangerously patient in her voice and he didn’t like it. he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, trying to understand why she brought that up _now_.

obviously, they were alone. she could yell at him in peace if she wanted to - but he didn’t think she would be someone to yell at him. stormy would, of what he knew. but not icy. not in this kind of situation. he guessed so, at least.

“i wouldn’t say i _saved_ her,” he answered lurkingly. 

she was the leader of her group, she knew how to deal with their allies best. he figured she knew what she was doing right now. and he didn’t like it that she was so successful at not letting her guard down, not letting him find out what she was going to do next. not letting him predict her every move. it was frustrating, really.

“she would have _drowned_ if you hadn’t interfered, so yes, you saved her,” she replied. 

he still hadn’t moved, hadn’t turned around to her. he still stared at her shadow on the wall, trying to read her. 

he knew bloom was someone she wanted to take revenge on, she had told him that. yet he had wanted to meet her personally. bloom was the last surviving person of domino, the princess even, and above all she had the dragon fire in her. she was a threat to him whether she knew it or not. 

“see, i don’t care if you do this to any other of these fairies but bloom needs to be defeated as soon as possible,” icy continued when he had stayed silent for a while.

he chuckled amused. “sounds like that fairy is important to you in a way.” 

“i could say the same thing about you.”

so they were on the same page about each other. it was good to know that. it was also interesting how she didn’t deny it. bloom was important to her too, in a strange way. he couldn’t wrap his mind around it yet but something happened. he was certain of that. 

valtor decided to stand up. to turn around to her and face her. her expression didn’t say anything - it was blank but then again, _it wasn’t._

she had crossed her arms, her posture and head were straight and high. she had a stern look in her eyes, her eyebrows slightly furrowed. 

“i think you happen to forget who you’re talking to,” he said, quietly threatening. 

her eyes were in a fascinating colour of ice blue. they were clear and bright, shining in the dim light of the moon. it didn’t fit her persona at all. she wasn’t clear at all, she was a blurry, faded image to him, grim and dark. darkness was radiating from her. he could feel that, even though he couldn’t make out where it came from.

“and i think _you_ are forgetting who _you are_ talking to,” she replied, not moving a muscle in her face. 

she looked him straight in the eye, not flinching, not moving her glance away. she only blinked regularly. _she was not afraid of him_. 

she didn’t care that he was so much older than her, she didn’t care that he was so much more experienced than her. 

she didn’t give a single _fuck_ about who he was. 

he didn’t like that either. his enemies were supposed to fear him and yes, his allies too, to some extent. because if they didn’t fear what he was able to do, they could betray him. it was all about loyalty.

but there was a tiny part in him, that was _fascinated_ by the same thing - that she was not afraid of him. she wasn’t even half his age and half as powerful as him and yet she stood in front of him as if their difference didn’t exist, as if she was _more_ powerful than him. 

“who am i talking to?” he asked, a wide grin tugging on his lips. 

obviously, he was trying to fool her, in order to make her angry. so she would _finally_ lose control over herself, let her guard down and he could figure out something. 

after all, it was the first time they spoke in days. 

but she didn’t fall for it, _of course she didn’t fall for it._ she still had too much control over this situation and herself that she wouldn’t be fooled like this. 

she grinned and tilted her head slightly but her smile was neither sincere nor amused. 

“nice try.” 

yet, he continued trying.

“what try?”

the grin disappeared from her face and she took a step toward him. she had to look up to him - she was a head smaller than him - to look into his eyes. 

“i don’t care if you feel like you’re having some _special business_ with bloom,” she started, her voice ever quieter than before, yet much sharper and more threatening, “but since you’re this _arrogant_ , maybe i should remind you that it was _me_ who freed you, who gave you your life back and not the other way around. so maybe, you should be a little more _thankful_ and cautious about what you’re doing with this _alliance_.”

“should i?”

she grinned again, no sign of humour or gentleness in it. 

“and there’s the arrogance again. if i were you, i wouldn’t underestimate me,” she said, her expression went back to normal and she turned around without another word, walking elegantly back to the part of the lair she called her room. 

valtor stood still and folded his arms on his chest, looking after her. 

he had two things on his mind.

the first was, _how dare she_?

it was her who freed him and not vice versa, she was right about that. but that didn’t give her _the right_ to blatantly call him arrogant like this. she was figuring him out, or at least trying to, he got that. 

and there was the second thing - she was successful. 

he didn’t know how she did it but she had done it. she had used the very same technique he had tried on her - trying to fool her, to provoke her, so she’d lose control, even if it was for a split second. he hadn’t succeeded, she had stayed calm and controlled. _she had seen it coming_.

but he hadn’t. whether she had done it on purpose or not, he had let _his_ guard down when she had mentioned _how damn arrogant he was_ . he had exposed himself to her for just a moment but that moment was enough for her to find out things about him that _she shouldn’t find out_. 

and why had he lost control over himself for a second? 

because she was right. because she was _fucking_ right. he knew damn well how arrogant he was - he didn’t dislike it, though, that was not the case -, he _knew_. 

because she already knew something about him that he didn’t know about her and she had used it just perfectly. 

it didn’t matter how _fucking_ mad he was at her now, he had to admit one thing.

_well-played._

**~*~**

**wednesday, september 12**

— she was alone there. 

it was only 4 pm. it was storming outside and she sat inside the bath tub of their old dorm room. the water was warm - at least for her - with just a little foam covering the surface. icy put her head on her knees and took a breath. 

they had overtaken cloud tower just three days ago and she was already bored. valtor hadn’t said anything about attacks, fights or missions yet. not that she was talking to him anyhow. 

she stuck to ignoring him most of the time. not looking into his eyes, not really answering to whatever he was saying. just in order to piss him off. 

they hadn’t had a real conversation since she had confronted him about bloom on andros. and in all honesty, she didn’t want to talk to him right now. frankly, she didn’t want to talk to _anyone_ right now. that’s why she had shut the bathroom door half an hour ago. 

darcy was out anyway. she had absolutely no idea where she was going but she had noticed she was going out rather _regularly_ lately. she had been out for at least a few hours since they were here. 

she knew darcy would tell her this was none of her business and she would be right but she couldn’t help herself but be curious about what she was doing. or who. 

stormy sat on the balcony. it was storming after all, heavily raining and the wind blew so strong, icy had already feared this tower wouldn’t stand long anymore but stormy absolutely _loved_ it. she sat outside in the rain, watched the sky and minded her own business. 

she wished she could do that too, just for a few hours again. 

_but no._ she was the leader, she had to keep an eye on what valtor was doing constantly. if she sensed that even the tiniest thing was off with him, she’d have to stop this alliance as soon as possible. 

that was not the case - _yet_? - of course. but she had to be careful nonetheless. 

she sighed and opened her bun. her hair flowed down over her body and touched the surface of the water. 

this _ignoring-him-at-all-costs_ thing slowly started to bore her, to exhaust her. she was paying attention to him in a different way. she tried to see the things he couldn’t hide. like when she had confronted him a few days ago.

he had grown impatient and even _angry_ the longer she had talked about his undeniable arrogance. it showed her she was _right_. he was arrogant. and he definitely did underestimate her. 

obviously, she knew he was stronger than her. only recently she had found out about his _story_ with griffin and what he had done in the past. the reason he was sentenced to omega. 

it was impressive, yes. 

but it also gave her an actual impression on just how much power he possessed. 

she had snuck into the library last night. she found a book on the history of the magical dimension and she had read _a lot_ about his doing in the past. 

she had found out he possessed the dragon flame and she damn well wondered why he hadn’t _bothered_ to tell them yet. 

but that explained why he had _saved_ bloom the other day. for the dragon’s sake, it made more sense than _anything_ he had said the day she had confronted him. 

why was he being secretive about that? 

not that he wasn’t being secretive about literally everything else too but this was something _she_ wouldn’t keep for herself if she was him. this was _important_ and it bothered her that he hadn’t told them. 

this was different. 

darkar hadn’t told her the full truth about his plan. she knew valtor was different than darkar but she still couldn’t help herself but to be extremely sceptical. 

the fact that she hadn’t known all, hadn’t known _enough_ about darkar was the reason why it had been so easy for him to betray them. she would’ve interfered, she would’ve left him sooner if she had sensed it coming.

he had disrespected them. he had thrown them to the ground, taking their powers for a while just to go and _take over the universe_ with bloom.

this wouldn’t happen again. this would be different. valtor wouldn’t dare to betray them - and if he did, she would be ready. 

she stood up and left the bath tub. 

**•••**

— the fairies had just arrived at alfea when valtor started to watch them through griffin’s crystal ball. their little trip to eraklyon had ended after bloom had found out the prince was _actually_ in love with princess diaspro. 

well, he wasn’t. but for now he was. 

normally, he wouldn’t waste his powers for a little, desperate woman. but if it meant making bloom suffer, he would do it. besides, he sensed a lot of potential in diaspro. if his plan worked out, she would make a good ally once he would rule over the universe. 

he changed the picture of the crystal ball when the only thing it showed was _poor_ bloom crying in her bed. now he saw stormy sitting on the ceiling of a balcony. it was raining outside - nothing new to him, he heard the sound of the raindrops against the window behind him. and all she did was look into the horizon. 

that was rather disappointing. she had a cigarette in one hand and her phone in the other one. 

he concentrated on darcy and the picture in the crystal switched again but only for a moment. then it went black. he rolled his eyes. he had noticed she had been going out a lot since they were in cloud tower but she didn’t need to have secrets. this wasn’t helping their alliance at all. this was only making her look suspicious. 

now the crystal showed icy to him. 

and he let the crystal go back to black really quick. 

she was in a bathroom and by the looks of _things_ she had just come out of the bath tub. luckily for _both of them_ , he saw her when she was already wrapped in a towel. 

he would take a few more minutes until he spied on her again. 

he wanted to know their secrets and to find out _all_ about them but this was privacy. he didn’t _need_ to see that. 

she had been ignoring him for the last couple of days. she hadn’t talked to him, she hadn’t even _looked him in the eyes_ when he had been talking. she had been acting as if he wasn’t even there. as if he was invisible. 

of course, he knew what she was doing. trying to make him angry, so he’d lose control again. just like he had for the tiniest moment on andros.

but this time he was prepared. he wouldn’t be fooled by her like this again. she wouldn’t make him lose his temper again. it had happened once and once was more than enough. 

this time, he would find out how to find out her weaknesses. 

but for now, since he didn’t necessarily _want_ to spy on her when she was just freshly out of the shower, he focused on the sheets of paper full of notes in front of him. 

the heading on the top one read _solaria_. 

it was pages full of planning different scenarios - he had to be prepared for everything. solaria was not a weak planet - quite the opposite, actually, it was the strongest planet in defense - and it wouldn’t be easy getting control over it. even though it should be easy, now that cassandra and this _annoying_ girl chimera were under his control and would tell king radius _exactly what he had to do_ , he figured there would be some difficulties. 

solaria had the second highest population in the magical dimension, there were _thousands_ , if not _millions_ of people who would be willing to fight him if it meant losing their planet otherwise. solarians were proud and strong, they wouldn’t go down without a fight.

valtor knew that. that was exactly why he had come up with so many ways this attack could go. from perfectly without any struggles - which was incredibly unrealistic, on that note - to everything was as terrible as possible. also not very realistic but more probable than the first one. 

he had to be prepared. 

he concentrated on cloud tower and every single one of its connections. then he spoke.

“meet me in griffin’s office in twenty minutes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> Also a huge thank you to everyone who left kudos and/or commented!! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**sunday, september 16.**

— “we lost.”

well, quelle  _ fucking  _ surprise. why was he surprised in the first place? absolutely  _ no one  _ would have guessed that the winx would  _ show up _ if they sensed something wasn’t going as usual on solaria. 

what kind of fucking cretin was he? 

icy crossed her arms in front of her chest and bit her tongue to keep herself from saying  _ anything  _ right now. she was too fucking pissed. and she very well knew that if she would say something  _ now _ , it would not end well. for the both of them. 

it was  _ his  _ fault. his fucking fault. if he had planned this better, then maybe, perhaps -  _ possibly _ \- they would’ve won. 

“you’re bleeding,” darcy said right next to her. 

icy frowned and touched her right cheek when darcy pointed to it. yes, she  _ was _ bleeding. and now that darcy had drawn her attention to that, it fucking  _ hurt _ . 

it must have been a mix of adrenaline and concentration on bloom that she hadn’t noticed. whether that had been one of bloom’s attacks or  _ whatso-fucking-ever _ , she didn’t know and honestly? she didn’t give a single fuck right now. 

still his fault. they could’ve prevented this fight from happening somehow - she had absolutely no fucking idea  _ how _ , it wasn’t like she knew his plans or he had shown her -  _ no.  _ but if he had done so, she was pretty sure, they would’ve gone further than they had now. 

this fight had been incredibly ridiculous. pathetic, even. 

“i’m fine,” she told darcy. 

valtor stepped in front of her and it was the first time in  _ days _ that she looked him in the eye. if glances could kill, he would be fucking dead now. and she  _ would not _ give a fuck. 

“you sure? it looks pretty de—“

“i’ll teleport us back,” he interrupted darcy. 

icy took a breath and closed her eyes, again, to keep herself from giving him a piece of her mind. a piece of her mind he wouldn’t like at all even though she would be saying the damn truth. 

she didn’t reply. it was darcy who nodded before he teleported them. 

she found herself in cloud tower’s cafeteria. empty as it had been for the last few days now. darcy stood next to her, stormy was somewhere behind her. valtor was nowhere to be seen. 

obviously. he had teleported his  _ dragon forsaken ass  _ right into his - griffin’s - office. 

_ not only a moron, but also a coward.  _

“it looks bad. i can help you clean that,” darcy said and touched her shoulder. 

icy sighed. “fine. whatever.”

she didn’t wanna yell at darcy, this wasn’t her doing gone wrong. this was all on valtor. but she was still mad. 

“i’ll go for a shower. see you,” stormy said and left for their dorm. 

darcy pulled her into the direction of the nurse’s office. she sat down on a chair there and watched darcy searching for stuff in the closets and drawers. she crossed her arms and smirked a little when she realised this was the first time in weeks that they were alone in a room. 

“where have you been going lately?” she asked casually. 

just the sight of darcy’s  _ busted _ face made her mood ten times better. did she really think she’d believe her when she said she was going into the library and staying there for half a day? 

she put tissues, cotton balls and some other medical stuff icy had never seen in her life on the table next to her. 

“how do you know?” she asked. 

icy folded her arms and grinned. “well, you’ve been in a rather  _ good _ mood for a while, you’re leaving early in the morning and sneaking back in when stormy’s already sleeping,” she started and darcy sighed. “also, it’s not like i’m never going to the library. you were never there. so… where were you?” 

darcy started to clean the blood from her cheek and icy hissed when she accidentally touched the wound. it  _ really _ hurt.

“i was… well, going out with someone actually,” darcy started and icy’s grin only grew wider. 

“that explains your good mood. who’s he? or she, i don’t know,” she asked while darcy examined her wound a little more.

darcy wanted to start talking but they heard footsteps right that second.

“i think she can take a few more moments without your help,” it was his voice. it had her heart starting to beat faster and her glance becoming colder. her bad mood was suddenly back. “if i may talk to your friend for a moment, alone?” he asked darcy. she nodded and walked out of the room but not without giving her a sceptical look valtor couldn’t see.

icy looked at him, threw one leg over the other but didn’t stand up from her chair. she raised an eyebrow and looked him defiantly in the eye, showing him that she wasn’t weak at all although half her face was still covered in blood. 

“what do you want?” she asked coldly. 

“i saw how you looked at me. anything you want to tell me?” he answered. 

icy frowned and looked at him. “are you sure you want to hear  _ what’s on my mind _ ?” she said and didn’t let him say anything. “because that is quite a lot. so, first of all, this was  _ your  _ fault. how stupid are you to think the winx  _ wouldn’t  _ notice? stella doesn’t seem like she’s very clever but i can tell you that’s not true. she knows even if you don’t give her credit for it. and i’m pretty sure she knows about your… little alliance with cassandra and that obnoxious girl too. so it was logical that she showed up with her friends. and don’t tell me now that  _ i could’ve told you this earlier _ because that doesn’t work this time. you could’ve asked me to help with the plan and you didn’t, that’s on you. so if you’re afraid your next plan won’t work too, and i can assure you that it won’t, you can ask me right here, right now, if i can help you.”

she was impressed with herself how calm she had talked. she had expected to be a lot angrier, she had expected she’d yell at him. that was different. but nonetheless, she was  _ pissed _ .

“there’s no need to ask you because i  _ don’t _ need your help,” he said, his tone dangerously quiet. 

“oh really?”

“you think you’re so much better with your plans, you think you don’t fail. are you sure about that, though? can you believe that yourself?” he started and she narrowed her eyes. for the first time since they had met, she didn’t know where he was going with this. she really had no idea. “because if you are this  _ unstoppable  _ and your plans are as  _ brilliant _ and  _ unfailable _ as you say, then i’m really wondering how bloom was able to defeat you.” 

_ so he knew?  _

“this is different.”

“is it?” he asked, eyeing her with a look she couldn’t define. “you should’ve predicted bloom would come back in some way just like i should’ve thought about the fairies. you can’t steal the dragon flame just like that. you should’ve known that too.”

a part of her knew that he was just trying to get in her head, to get her to let down her guard, to make her  _ vulnerable  _ for even just a moment. but that rational part of her was just  _ too small _ in that moment. her anger got the better of her when she snapped. 

she stood up from her chair in one quick movement. “you better leave now,” she hissed. 

he had the audacity to smirk at her. “as you wish,” he said and turned around on the spot, left the room and closed the door. 

she took a moment to take a breath and to calm herself down. deep down, she thought for just a moment that he let this plan fail just in order to get this kind of reaction from her - because he knew she would get angry about this, because he knew she would tell him what she was thinking. because he knew her. at least a part of her. he knew her enough to do such a thing.

on the other hand, though, he wouldn’t do that just in order to find out something about her. as much as he seemed to enjoy his little  _ moment of victory _ just now, he wouldn’t risk an entire fight for that. 

icy flinched when she felt darcy’s hand on her shoulder. she sighed and sat back down on the chair.

“what did he say?” she asked and continued her work, wiped more blood away with the tissues.

“doesn’t matter,” she knew darcy would know that she was lying but she didn’t care right now. she did not want to talk about it. “anyway, you’re going out with someone. who is it?” she asked instead.

this little  _ conversation _ had made her mood even worse than before. she just wanted to hear darcy talking about the most  _ random stuff  _ that she could  _ care less about _ just in order to forget valtor and his bullshit for a moment. 

she hadn’t expected what darcy was going to say next, though.

“riven,” she said so quickly that icy first thought she had only imagined it. “it’s… riven.”

“so that’s why musa was so pissed when she saw you,” icy muttered, more to herself than to darcy. 

“no, musa doesn’t know… yet. riven and i, we… we wanted to keep it private for now because… you know, i’m not sure this is working out the way we want it yet but… since you asked…” darcy confessed and icy felt her grin returning.

that worked as a perfect distraction because out of all people in the dimension, she hadn’t thought about riven. or even the possibility of him and darcy getting back together. 

“so he’s cheating on her with you?” 

“kinda, yes,” darcy muttered “but only for now. it would just look really suspicious if he broke up with her just a week after i returned to magix and all that stuff. but he said he’s going to break up with her soon because they’re already on a… let’s say lowpoint.” 

“and you’re looking forward to that.”

“honestly? yes.”

“that’s… pretty evil but definitely you, darce.”

she saw darcy grinning from the corner of her eye. “maybe.”

“so no valtor for you?” she couldn’t help herself but to ask, but to think about him again.  _ moron. _

“definitely not,” darcy said “i mean… not that he’s not hot or anything but riven is… he’s different,” she shrugged casually before continuing. “also, you two behave like you’re an  _ old, married couple _ that’s about to get a divorce and i really don’t wanna get in your way.”

“excuse me?” 

icy looked at her in shock and fright. she shook her head and turned back so darcy could continue her work on her cheek.

“i did hear what you two were talking about.” 

“and? i was right?” icy said “for your information, i don’t like him. he’s an ally we need for becoming more powerful and winning. that’s all. the only appealing thing about him is that he looks good but other than that, he’s a complete moron,” 

darcy grinned. “whatever you say,” she gently hit on her cheek twice. “you’re good now.”

“thanks,” she muttered and got up from her chair again.

“but you know who else i saw while going out with riven?” darcy asked while putting the unused tissues back to the place where she had gotten them from. 

“spill it.”

“ _ darko.” _

  
  


**~*~**

**monday, october 1.**

— it had been over a month now. 

a month since she had agreed to work with him. she still didn’t know if she should feel good about it or not. if she was thinking rationally, only focused on their achievements and their goal, then _ yes _ , it was a good thing. they had andros, eraklyon, espero, oppositus, linphea, melody and zenith under their control. and parts of solaria, too. they had all of their spells -  _ he  _ had all of their spells, she corrected herself - and in the meantime, they had made so many allies in the entire dimension. it was fascinating how far they had come in just a month. 

they  _ were _ working well together as allies. they hadn’t lost a fight except for the one on solaria. 

but the part of the alliance that was not related to their plans? the part of their teamwork when it wasn’t in the middle of a fight?  _ terrible. _

even when she had worked for darkar, it hadn’t been this terrible. yes, darkar had had secrets and he hadn’t always told the truth but he had never played with them. at least not in the way valtor did. 

darkar had played all of them together. for him, they had been puppets, if not  _ slaves _ from the start. looking back, it had only been a matter of time until he had gotten rid of them. icy knew that now.

valtor, on the other hand, had a completely different  _ game _ he was playing. he had been praising her the first time they had met. only this one time. the other times they had been talking, he had been distant, defiant even. he had tried to find out her weaknesses, had tried to get her to let her guard down  _ on purpose _ . hell, he had even succeeded. 

since the conversation they had had after the fight on solaria, he hadn’t talked to her and nor she to him. yet, he had started to give  _ someone else _ a lot of attention. 

stormy. 

half a week after they had attacked solaria, they had snuck into alfea to get their spells and formulas. they hadn’t  _ fully _ succeeded but they also hadn’t failed. they had come back with  _ some _ books and spells but not all of them. valtor had been indifferent about it - at least to the outside. and since then, he had been giving stormy a major portion of his attention.

not that she minded at all. she was glad he wasn’t paying as much attention to her as he used to do. 

yet, a couple of days  _ after _ they had been at alfea, valtor had granted stormy - and  _ only _ stormy - a power-up. and then he had sent her to linphea to stop the winx from finding an antidote to rescue  _ tree-faragonda _ . (because during their raid of alfea’s archive, he had been  _ oh so busy _ dragging faragonda to the forest only to curse her into a  _ damn tree _ instead of killing her.) stormy’s original plans had failed and it had only taken  _ an hour _ until she had asked for darcy’s and her help telepathically. 

even after they had come back, he had been  _ weirdly pleased _ with stormy and her achievement of that day. which hadn’t been her achievement at all since she and darcy had  _ helped _ her. but he hadn’t cared about that. 

and since yesterday, he had  _ suddenly _ lost all interest about stormy. she just existed for him and he pretended as if  _ nothing had ever happened _ . 

she hadn’t gotten behind the meaning of this game he was playing but truth be told, she didn’t like it. 

icy sighed and leaned back into her pillows. it was past midnight but she couldn’t seem to fall asleep. stormy was sleeping like a baby, on her stomach, her blanket only covering her legs by now. darcy wasn’t out but she also wasn’t in their dorm. actually, she was a few rooms away, in a two-person dorm that was currently empty. she had told her that riven was coming over now that she had found a spell to keep her  _ little secret _ from valtor even when she was in cloud tower. it wasn’t a secret anymore that he sensed that  _ something  _ was off but fortunately for her, he hadn’t found out yet. 

she just wanted to fall asleep now. valtor had told them to come into the office tomorrow morning as there was something he wanted to show them. she didn’t know what it was and in all honesty, she didn’t care right now. she had a terrible headache from all the thinking and mind games he had put them through this past month and she just wanted to sleep, to have a normal day when she didn’t have to pay attention to every  _ single, tiny thing  _ that he was doing.

but she knew that wasn’t an option. there were too many risks if she didn’t do it. 

in the worst case, all three of them would die because of him.

she had to be careful.

**~*~**

**thursday, october 4.**

— there was something about the way he was ignoring her  _ once again _ . 

she sat on the desk, silently watched how valtor eyed darcy with an  _ admirable _ look. darcy sat on the left chair, one leg over the other. icy couldn’t see her face but she kneaded her hands. something she only did whenever she was  _ nervous _ . when she didn’t know what was happening. 

“darcy,” he started and smiled but something about that smile didn’t seem _genuine_. “what do _you_ _think_ , which planet should _go down_ next?”

seriously? he asked  _ her _ that? her? wow. there have been  _ a lot _ of times that he had done something  _ bold _ but this… this was the  _ worst _ he had done so far. and he wasn’t even trying to hide it. 

“um, are there any options?” darcy asked and icy could basically  _ hear _ how nervous she was. it was rare to see darcy nervous but this time it was really obvious. 

“you’re free to choose,” he replied, still smiling at her. 

icy narrowed her eyes. there were two simple reasons  _ why  _ he was doing that.

number one: he  _ officially _ found out that darcy had a secret she wasn’t telling him. 

she wouldn’t be surprised if it was that. riven was an idiot, he very well could’ve ran into valtor even when darcy had told him not to leave the room. 

apart from that, it was  _ obvious _ darcy was hiding something. especially by the way she was reacting to his  _ rather simple _ question now. she was nervous, and normally, she wouldn’t be nervous if she wasn’t having a secret of  _ some sort _ . it wouldn’t be surprising if valtor had found out too. he was that sneaky, he was always watching their every move. and he damn well was sceptical about darcy being so secretive and suspicious. it had only been a matter of time and icy had told darcy that she should better be careful. 

number two: he was, once again, trying to make her angry. 

she also wouldn’t be surprised if this was what he was doing right now. she had told him, indirectly, that she’d want to help him with the planning back when they had lost on solaria. of course, that was something he hadn’t forgotten about. so asking her best friend  _ in front  _ of her about something she would’ve wanted to answer was the perfect way to make her pissed.

and icy had to admit, if that was his goal, it was working.

she was pissed. 

she tried to control it, tried not to be obviously angry. the rational part in her knew she shouldn’t be mad about  _ that _ because that was just what he was planning. not to mention she’d let him win this game  _ again _ if she reacted angry in even the slightest way. 

“hmm, maybe revèl. i heard the planet’s magic is about calm and silence. maybe that could help you,” darcy said but not as sovereign as she normally would. 

he looked at darcy for a really long moment before even saying something about her suggestion. 

**•••**

— “um, are there any options?” darcy asked and valtor forced another  _ friendly  _ smile. 

his eyes focused on icy for a split second, short enough for her to notice -  _ if  _ she even noticed, considering her gaze was fully on darcy. she sat calmly, one leg over the other. her hands were on the surface of the desk, she leaned a little backwards. although she looked calm from afar, he  _ knew _ she wasn’t calm at all. 

her expression told a different story. her eyes were wide open, she was clearly awake and was paying attention to every detail, yet she frowned just a  _ little _ . her nose looked normal but her lips were  _ slightly _ pressed together. 

he smirked a little. she was angry. she just didn’t show it but this was getting on her nerves.  _ just as he had planned. _

“you’re free to choose,” he answered, still keeping his smile on his face. 

darcy had one eyebrow raised when she looked at him. she didn’t  _ directly  _ look at him, didn’t look him in the eyes. rather, she looked at something in his face. 

he knew she was hiding something from him. he guessed she was  _ meeting _ someone. when she had helped icy with her injury on the day they had attacked solaria, he had overheard them for a short moment talking about that. plus he knew she had been sneaking out and put a spell over herself so he couldn’t spy on her. 

darcy was clearly nervous when she chuckled quietly and then forced a smile.

“hmm, maybe revèl. i heard the planet’s magic is about calm and silence. maybe that could help you,” she suggested. 

valtor smiled again and stared at her.

revèl, was she kidding him? that was one of the most  _ unnecessary  _ planets there were. their magic may be unique and special and  _ yes, _ if he was being honest, he  _ could _ use that. but other than that? there were  _ plenty _ of other planets that would help him more than that. and for some  _ unexplainable and strange reason _ , he guessed that if he had asked icy the same question, he would’ve gotten a more  _ useful _ answer. 

yet, he said, “that’s a good idea. thank you, darcy,” then he blinked once, looked at icy again for a second before turning around so he could face all of them. “i’ll be back later,” he announced, opened an interdimensional portal and stepped through it. 

he had succeeded for now.

**•••**

— the sun had already set when he came back. 

she lied on the desk, skimming through  _ the senior yearbook of 2005 _ , just to see the ugly faces of the people she used to know. darcy still sat on the chair, texting riven. stormy sat on the other chair - she was having her second nap for today. 

icy put the book down when she noticed valtor was back. it was funny how griffin and  _ everyone else _ just pretended they hadn’t been in that class. there were no photos or remarks of them. 

he didn’t look at her once again, he didn’t even bother. she sat up and crossed her arms in front of her chest. his eyes were focused on darcy again, as was his smile. 

“you’re back,” darcy said with foreign surprise and a chuckle. 

“i am, and i brought something for all of you.”

did he now? 

she raised a brow after he announced that and jumped from the desk, leaning her back against it. stormy woke up apparently, as she crossed her arms and put one leg over the other.

“for you stormy, a calming mobile. it’s said to calm one’s anger and keep them relaxed,” he said and let a fucking children’s mobile fly to stormy. 

she knew she shouldn’t but if he wasn’t standing in front of her, she would’ve laughed. that would help stormy sometimes for sure. 

then he turned to her and it was the first time that day that he actually  _ looked _ at her. 

“a brooch. it’s said to calm one and keep their emotions controlled.”

_ fuck you.  _

she wanted to say it when he smirked  _ so damn smugly _ at her but she took a deep breath and caught the brooch when it was flying above her head. 

it was surprisingly pretty. a golden plate in the shape of a leaf - an engraved fox with closed eyes over the head of the great dragon. if he had given it to her without that comment, she would’ve been surprised. sadly, the fact he had said  _ that _ made her pissed about it.

she didn’t need a stupid brooch, if he really wanted to give her a gift, he could just as well grant her some power. 

“and for you, darcy, a bracelet i found in the palace,” he started - she couldn’t help but notice how he hadn’t said  _ her  _ name. “it keeps out  _ negative energy _ , so i supposed you might  _ need  _ that.”

_ fuck you for real. _

the way he grinned and slightly nodded into her direction wasn’t helping at  _ fucking _ all. 

darcy smiled and tried on the bracelet, then thanked him politely. for a second, she looked at icy and that one look said more than enough.

she had absolutely no idea how she should react to anything else he was going to say or do now. it was obvious she didn’t want to be here, nor did she want his attention right now. 

“we’re done here? i’m tired,” stormy said, stretched and yawned. 

“yes. i’ll let you know about something new,” valtor said and it was the first thing he said today that icy liked. 

as soon as stormy had reached the door, she walked forward, ignoring  _ him _ and walked out of the office. darcy shut the door behind herself and she followed her down the hall. 

“what was  _ that _ ?” darcy asked. 

“nothing, he was just showing off what kind of  _ asshole _ he is,” she muttered. 

“you’re pissed.” 

“of course i am!” icy turned around to darcy and laughed a little “it’s not like he’s been pissing me off since we found him. he’s annoying, he’s making  _ terrible _ decisions and this mind game he’s having? how am i supposed to be  _ not pissed _ ?” she sighed. 

it was nice getting that off her chest for now. of course, darcy wasn’t stupid. she had noticed icy wasn’t too happy with how he was working. yet it still felt good to actually  _ tell  _ it to someone. 

“you need some distraction,” darcy stated. 

“do i? what if he’s messing up the next thing that could threaten our lives? why should i need a distraction?” she asked. she was  _ still _ angry.

“because you need to not think about  _ him _ and all of this for a moment,” darcy said “i’m not saying you should take off a week or a month, i’m talking about a night you don’t spend in this tower.” 

icy sighed and shrugged. “your suggestion?”

“i’m going out with riven on saturday. why don’t you come with us? stormy will join too, probably. and… you know, we wanted to go to a certain bar so  _ maybe _ your favourite boytoy is there. or you just find someone else, whatever you want,” darcy said and grinned “come on, just one night out. just like the old days. no valtor, not his annoying presence. just us.”

she had to admit, it definitely didn’t sound bad. and she was right - she could use darko as a distraction once again. hopefully that was going to help her for a night because  _ yes _ , she was fed up with valtor and his bullshit and this dragon forsaken tower. 

“okay fine. i’m in.”

“you won’t _regret_ it.”


	4. Chapter 4

**~*~**

**saturday, october 6.**

— the lights of the club shone brightly in the dark night sky. icy crossed her arms over her chest while scanning the facade of the club in front of her. 

it had been two years since she had last been here. darko hadn’t changed a lot - it was still the same colourful lighting, still the same up-beat dance tune playing. if she wouldn’t have known how this looked on the inside, she wouldn’t have bothered to look at the club for more than two seconds. 

darcy led the way along with riven by her side and pulled them into the direction of the vip-entrance. the security man knew her apparently and let them all in without even asking if they were invited - which they weren’t particularly. 

a mass of people were dancing, singing along loudly on the inside. she would’ve already left if she hadn’t known the second floor had a lounge and a bar where she didn’t really hear all of these people. they also wouldn’t follow them up there, as they weren’t considered  _ very important people _ to darko. 

they walked upstairs as soon as possible. the second floor was almost empty except for some security men, a bartender and some  _ very rich looking _ guests. not many though, ten at most. 

riven sat on the black leather couch in the lounge, darcy right next to him. stormy told them she was going downstairs to dance (more like to find some people she could mess with and make fun of) as icy sat on the last seat at the bar, facing riven and darcy. 

“the same as always?” the bartender asked. it was a woman, dark hair but sharp blue eyes with perfect makeup. 

“yes, thal!” riven shouted back and the woman,  _ thal _ , apparently, got to work, pouring one glass of rosé wine and one of whiskey. riven stood up and walked to the counter, taking the two glasses when thal put them there. he went back to darcy.

“who are you?” thal asked her and icy turned her head to her. “oh, no no no, wait i’ve seen you here before but it’s been a while, right?” she asked.

“yeah. more or less,” icy answered. she was here to finally forget about valtor and all of this drama for a night, she wasn’t here to talk to a bartender she knew for two minutes now. “a french 75 please,” she ordered with an annoyed grin on her face. 

thal looked surprised. “classy.” 

“indeed she is.” 

_ darko. _

icy turned around in her seat to face him. he walked up to her, smirking. she had to admit, he looked  _ really damn good _ in that suit. sadly, he was too stupid and naive. and he didn’t have any power - except for the power over free drinks. but just for a night to forget about everything else, he was a good idea. 

“i didn’t expect to see you here,” he said while sitting in the seat next to her. icy made sure to grin widely, turning her back on darcy and riven. 

“darcy asked me if i wanted to come with them, so… i did,” she explained, putting one leg over the other. 

“i’m honoured,” he grinned, “two shots, thalina!” he ordered without turning around nor taking his eyes off her.

admittedly, it felt quite  _ refreshing _ to not be ignored constantly. finally there was someone who was acknowledging her existence and didn’t use that for some  _ twisted _ mind game. 

thal put the two shots darko had ordered in front of them and the cocktail she had wanted. 

“i hope you don’t think about leaving soon,” he said and took the glass in one hand. 

“oh, don’t worry, i won’t,” she replied and did the same as he did.

“then cheers to a long night, am i right?” 

they clinked glasses.

  
  


**~*~**

**sunday, october 7.**

— it was two in the morning. 

he had just closed the third book that night when he heard loud footsteps from the floor. it sounded as if the person was wearing heels - which was not surprising to him - but he couldn’t put his hands around  _ who _ it was. 

he shook his head and returned to his pile of books and notes. why would he even bother? it was not his business what they were doing in the middle of the night in the hallways. as long as they were healthy and ready to fight at any time, it was fine with him. he wasn’t in the mood to play some games with one of them right now, that was only fun when all three of them were here and if he wasn’t digging deep into his plans. 

he did bother again when he heard a knocking sound along with the footsteps. valtor took a breath when he stood up. this was getting on his nerves now. 

it was one thing when they were  _ walking _ around but it was another thing when they were annoying him  _ on purpose. _

he opened the door but no one stood in front of it. he turned his head to both sides to see if someone was there. no one on the right but he did see someone on the left side of the door. he frowned. she was walking shakily, one hand pressed to the wall next to him. 

what in the world was wrong with her?

“icy?” he asked. 

she flinched and then turned around slowly and shakily. he already expected to see her with a terrible injury but she looked pretty much healthy when she faced him. she wore a dark blue off-shoulder dress that ended just above her knees. she had a silver necklace that held a little diamond and her hair was bound back in a low ponytail that definitely wasn’t the same anymore as it was when she had done it, he figured. 

“ohhh, valtor, you’re here. goo-ood, i just wanted to go to griffin to tell her how fucking ugly and terrible she is,” she answered and almost fell down on the side while talking. she laughed a little once she was finished talking.

she had been drinking, that was obvious to him now. no real injury, just a  _ bit _ too much alcohol. she couldn’t stand straight anymore, her eyes were glassy and he was sure, she wouldn’t talk like this if she was sober. but why?

“that’s… not the right direction,” he answered carefully. he had never seen her when she had been drinking, he had no idea how she behaved when she was drunk. 

she made a surprised expression that would’ve almost looked  _ cute _ if she wasn’t her and drunk. “it’s not? ohh, does that mean you’re coming with me?”

“no.”

“wooow, you’re such a wet blanket. but you’re dry. well, i’m not because it’s raining outside— oh god that sounded wro-ong,” she started laughing again. 

“where have you been?” valtor asked.

he was still trying to think of a reason on why she would end up  _ this _ drunk. he got to know her as a very controlled person, yet this was everything but controlled. what had happened so she would let her guard down like this? she had always tried to not let that happen, especially not when he was in front of her. so why was she now? she knew who he was and what he had done, yet it didn’t seem like she cared a lot about that now. 

“we were partying. like, darcy, stormy and me and… you know, darcy’s old flame but don’t tell her i told you that,” she started.

“i won’t,” he promised. at least he now got his clarification that he had been right all the time about darcy seeing someone. 

“sooo, i was talking to an old friend but he left me at some point at the bar and sooooo i watched stormy dancing and she fell on the floor once because she moved like this—“ she said and tried to make the move she was talking about. she stumbled a little and would have fallen to the ground if he hadn’t grabbed her arm and pulled her up again. 

she looked at him with big, surprised eyes and he let go of her arm as soon as he was sure she would be able to stand again. now, that was becoming awkward. 

“oh wow, didn’t think that’d ever happen,” she muttered.

“you’re drunk. you need to go to bed,” he said. and he meant it. 

if she had been wanting to visit griffin in the dungeons but had been walking into the direction of the cafeteria, he wouldn’t know where else she would go to. worst case would be if she walked up to one of the balconies and lost her balance as she just did. normally, he wouldn’t admit it but he needed her. she was strong and intelligent. he couldn’t win this without her help, he knew that. he was only thinking rationally. 

“oh my god, you’re such a fucking wet blanket. don’t you want some fun too sometimes? no wonder no one likes you,” icy said and it did sound a little disappointed. he wouldn’t admit it but she did strike a certain nerve in him with that comment. but before he could reply anything to that, she continued. “wait that’s funny because you have no idea what kind of asshole you actually are but lemme tell you, you’re reaaaally terrible. but _ i like you _ . like  _ really  _ like you. isn’t that just stupid?” she laughed. 

he stared at her for a moment. 

_ what had she just said?  _

he knew she was drunk. he knew she probably wouldn’t remember she said that in the morning. but he couldn’t help himself but to stare at her. was she even serious? he really didn’t know if she was one of those people who always told the truth when they were drunk or not. and he couldn’t exactly figure out how  _ credible _ the words of a usually cold and controlled, now giggly and drunk witch, who wasn’t even in her twenties, were. 

he couldn’t help but to notice how his normally dead and steady heart beat a little faster. 

**•••**

— her head was throbbing when she woke up. 

she hadn’t even opened her eyes yet and she already felt like throwing up in a minute. after a minute, she carefully tried to sit up on her bed - she had no idea how she got there - and opened her eyes. stormy was still sleeping and darcy wasn’t in her bed. the lights were off but something told her it was almost afternoon. 

her stomach twisted and she leaned over the edge of her bed to throw up. she hadn’t expected there would be a bucket right next to it. she guessed darcy had put it there. good for all of them as now no one had to clean the floor. 

she couldn’t remember a hangover like this in years. logically, she hadn’t been drinking  _ like that _ since she had been expelled. she had been madly drunk last night. 

the last thing she remembered was darko and her making out close to the lounge. she knew he left at some point because one of his employees - probably one of the  _ illegal  _ ones - had messed something up that couldn’t wait. and then she had been watching stormy messing with the dancing people. then she had a black out. 

she had absolutely no idea how she had come back to cloud tower nor how she ended up in her bed. it couldn’t have been her alone since that had never gone out well when she had been studying. it had been darcy, right? she always made sure she ended up in bed safely when they had been drinking. 

she looked at her bedside table to reach her phone but something else caught her attention. there was a glass of water and two white pills with a note.  _ darcy was a gift _ . icy took the pills and drank, then reached for the note and almost choked on the water in her mouth. 

_ thank me later _ . 

black, cursive letters. this wasn’t darcy’s handwriting and it certainly wasn’t stormy’s. this was valtor’s, she knew it. 

did that mean it hadn’t been darcy who had brought her to bed and left her the pills and water - and probably the bucket - but valtor? why would  _ he _ of all people care? 

had she run into him last night? drunk? 

_ fuck. _

he wasn’t supposed to see her like that. 

the door opened and  _ thank the dragon  _ it was darcy. she frowned when she saw her and walked up to her bed. 

“you look like hell,” she said and sat on the edge of icy’s bed. 

“i feel like that too,” she answered “you… did you bring me here last night?” she asked carefully. 

darcy shook her head, clearly confused. “no, i was wondering how you got here too. i left with riven to go out for a walk and then we got here at… one thirty i think. but we didn’t leave the room, you know.”

“keep the details to yourself,” icy said and shook her head.

“but if it wasn’t me, who got you back here then? i remember you got pretty drunk after darko left.”

icy shrugged although she probably knew. she tried to remember anything. it took her a while and she still couldn’t figure out how she got back to cloud tower but she started to remember seeing valtor. they had been talking but she couldn’t recall what they had said, except for—

_ no. _

the only thing she remembered was that she talked about how boring he was and that no one liked him like that. no one but her. 

_ fuck, she was stupid. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello & thank you for reading! :)
> 
> this chapter was a bit shorter than the other ones, as it was the last chapter of part one. part two will start with a longer chapter next friday/saturday! :) 
> 
> have a nice weekend & stay safe!


	5. Chapter 5

**part II**

_ there was a spark in the depth of your heart. _

  
  


**~*~**

**saturday, october 20.**

— feeling anything sucked.

especially embarrassment. 

her coat was warm when she put it on while walking through the hallways. he had called for  _ all of them _ five minutes ago. it was half past four in the morning and certainly not her time.

not that she had been sleeping. she hadn’t gotten a minute of sleep this night, in fact. there were just  _ too _ many things keeping her awake. 

the knowledge that she had told him that  _ she liked him _ when she had been drunk, for instance. 

and the fact that he had a different look in his eyes when he was looking at her now and she had no fucking idea what it meant. 

it was obvious he could remember what she had said. and she couldn’t even blame him for that because she would too if  _ he _ had told  _ her _ that. 

so far, darcy and stormy didn’t know about it. darcy sensed that there was something but she couldn’t put her fingers on it. at least that was working because she knew she couldn’t handle the embarrassment if they knew too. 

and so far, she had been avoiding valtor. only talking and standing in the same room as him when he had called for them. other than that, she stayed in the dorm or in the library. not even hanging out in his office or in the cafeteria anymore. 

a tiny voice in her head told her she should talk to him about it but she’d rather  _ perish _ than doing that.

she had been texting with darko for a while but apparently the employee that messed something up, had not only messed something up but  _ fucked  _ something up. so he wouldn’t be around magix for a few weeks. that distraction was gone. and she most certainly wasn’t in the mood to find someone new. 

for fuck’s sake, she would get over that fucking accident. 

a little embarrassment whenever she looked at him and each of their conversations felt completely awkward. what about it?

that was until she opened the door of the office and three pairs of eyes looked at her. 

stormy was just clearly tired and done, darcy looked bored but she still tried to find out what had happened and why icy was being so secretive. and then him.

his steel blue eyes were only focused on her, observing her while she was closing the door behind her and walked up to them. 

she crossed her arms when she stood next to stormy and tried to ignore his  _ intense _ stare on her. 

“so, what’s the news?” she asked, trying to sound casual. truthfully, she didn’t. 

“bloom started a vacation to pyros. she’s there to train her abilities,” he said, looking at each of them. when he looked directly at her, she looked away. 

she tried to focus on the news he told them and not on his stare. bloom was on pyros. as much as she knew, pyros was called the planet of dragons. there were no human inhabitants, just some explorers and scientists that wanted to find out about the dragons’ ways of life. 

to train her abilities, to train her powers. 

all of her obnoxious friends had earned their  _ oh so special _ enchantix. she was the only one left. and why was that? because in order to earn her enchantix, she’d have to save someone from her planet, ergo domino. sad thing she was the only one left. icy doubted bloom’d be able to get her enchantix by saving herself. she would’ve unlocked it that way a long time ago already. 

so naturally, as a consequence of her  _ inability _ to earn her enchantix, she’d try to become more powerful by herself, without that  _ precious enchantix boost _ . 

“you’re saying we should go after her and cause some trouble?” darcy asked.

“i already set up a trap so she won’t succeed so easily but yes. it’s midnight on pyros now, i will tell you when you can attack,” he explained.

so now bloom would be her distraction. at least something that would work.

still, when they were leaving the room, she felt his eyes burning a hole into her back again. and she still didn’t know what was in his eyes when he looked at her. 

damn. 

**~*~**

**saturday, november 3.**

— another hour passed and he still hadn’t slept for the night. not that that was something out of the ordinary. 

he was watching the winx trying to save one of their friends who had fallen into the omega portal before it had closed.  _ pathetic _ . 

omega was a high security prison, only for the worst criminals this universe had ever seen. no one was able to escape this thing. even he wouldn’t have if icy hadn’t arrived and saved him. 

_ icy. _

another hour, another time he was thinking about her. it had almost been a month since she had told him, drunkenly, that she  _ liked _ him. he couldn’t get it out of his head. he probably should. 

she wasn’t more than an ally to him. she was magically strong and she knew how to make a plan. that was all he cared about. and this mind game they had kept up for almost two months? that had soley been his amusement. he would have done that with every of his allies. it was just fun to mess with them - and he needed to do that in order to prevent a betrayal from happening. 

that was it. 

that was why he had paid a bit more attention to her. she wasn’t  _ special  _ to him. she was  _ average _ . he had had  _ better _ allies in the past. allies who had been stronger than her and less  _ complicated _ . 

besides, it was  _ her _ fault flora had gotten her enchantix. if she hadn’t thrown her sister into that water, it wouldn’t have happened. 

she was  _ useless _ .

the only thing good about her was her ability to fight. 

but then again, there had to be a reason why he couldn’t be unbothered by her  _ comment _ , right?

yes, it was fun playing with her mind especially because she knew how to play. she had been messing with his mind as well - and even though his one time loss had pissed him off  _ so much _ , he had to admit that it had been interesting. it had been different. it hadn’t been as easy as it had been with darcy or stormy or any other ally he once had. 

she was a challenge and he  _ liked _ that. 

so what if that had been her playing along too? when she had been drunk and told him  _ that _ ? had she been planning that just to mess with him? 

she could’ve. she out of all people could pull something like that. 

yet, she was behaving weirdly. if she had planned it, then why was she acting like this? she wasn’t hanging out in the office anymore, only talked to him if it was something plan related and she didn’t even look him in the eye anymore. that couldn’t be an act.

but maybe that was part of her plan too. 

he didn’t want to be fooled  _ again _ . he wanted to know if she really did that  _ on purpose _ or  _ on accident _ . 

he smirked when he thought of something.

there was a way to find that out. 

  
  


**~*~**

**thursday, november 8.**

— she had no fucking clue why he was asking her to come into the office. 

it was early afternoon, which wasn’t the strange part about it. it was the fact that he had  _ only _ called for  _ her _ . usually, he always called for all of them, not one in particular. 

did he want to talk about  _ the thing _ ? did he want to tell her that she was absurdly stupid for feeling like that? that wouldn’t be new to her, she already knew it was incredibly absurd. was he going to  _ throw her out  _ because of that? 

it had been a month and they hadn’t talked about it once. he had never mentioned it, he hadn’t even  _ indirectly referred to it _ . she hadn’t talked about it either. not to darko, not to darcy or stormy. she wanted to keep this a secret. it was  _ way too fucking _ embarrassing if someone knew about it. 

it was already embarrassing enough that he knew.

she knocked on the door but didn’t wait for his reply to enter. as she had expected it, he sat on the chair at the desk, seemingly already awaiting her. 

there were piles of books next to him, papers and ripped out pages. he had his head resting on the outside of his crossed hands. he looked up when she entered. 

“you wanted to see me?” she asked hesitantly. 

after all, she still had no idea why he had called her. either he wanted to talk about  _ something  _ or he wanted to start a new round of his dragon forsaken game she probably wouldn’t be prepared for. 

at least that was what she would assume. she didn’t need to know  _ what _ game he was playing, she just needed to know  _ if _ he was playing. so she could be ready. 

“yes, there is something i want to talk to you about,” he started while she walked up to the desk, then sat down on one of the chairs.

_ fuck. _

she was already sitting, there was no way she could escape this conversation now. hopefully, this would be over soon. the embarrassment she felt was incredible.

when she still hadn’t answered, he just continued talking.

“i’ve been thinking about the case with solaria. maybe you are right and you can help me with this,” he asked carefully. 

she couldn’t help herself but to answer rather  _ offended. _

“oh, so now you need my help? wasn’t darcy’s help good enough last time?” she asked but tried to sound as if she was teasing, which, in all honesty, didn’t really work.

“i was just testing if her help would suffice. and yes, now i need your help. you’re their leader after all,” he answered and crossed his arms, frowning.

“and? did she  _ help _ ?”

“it did but it certainly wasn’t the best help i ever got.” 

“poor you,” icy imitated the sound of a pitiful child. 

valtor sighed annoyed. “now, are you going to help me with this plan?”

she shrugged. “i’m not sure yet after the months of ignoring and messing around. don’t know if you deserve my help.”

surprisingly, he chuckled and shook his head. what was he getting at with this?

“and i am supposed to be the  _ wet blanket _ ?” he asked rhetorically. 

her eyes widened in shock and she felt her heart stopping for a second. then it beat  _ way too fucking fast. _

“what did you say?” she tried to downplay her reaction by asking.

“oh, excuse my  _ indiscretion _ , you probably don’t remember saying that judging by the fact of how drunk you were,” he started and there was a lurking undertone in his voice that she didn’t like. he was getting at something. “but you came to me to tell me that i’m boring and i’m a wet blanket and that no one likes me for that,”  _ fucking asshole _ . he had the audacity to smirk and she  _ knew _ what he was about to say. “except for you.”

_ cretin. fucking asshole. this son of a bitch.  _

“i also said you’re terrible,” she reminded him. 

he grinned widely,  _ smugly _ . “oh, so you do remember?”

“partly. i wish i didn’t.” 

“which is because you were telling the truth. i didn’t expect that but i’m flattered,” he held a hand to his chest, as if he was taunting her - which he definitely was.

_ no, you’re not. _

“you know what?” she snapped and stood up, leaning over the desk so he had to lean back in his chair. “i don’t give a fuck how smug you feel about it because you shouldn’t. i was drunk, which happened because i was so pissed because of you and your mind gaming bullshit. you can count yourself lucky i was in a good mood because you wouldn’t have seen me in a bad mood when i was already mad at you. you need my help with this? i suggest you’re behaving a little nicer around me or you will regret it.”

instead of yelling back at her or getting angry, he just started grinning.

“perfect. that is all i needed to know,” he said.

she furrowed her brows and leaned back, eyeing him sceptically. there was something off about this.

“you wanted to hear something from me. i don’t know what it was exactly but you needed a confession,” she concluded and crossed her arms. and here they were again, in the middle of a mind game he had set up. at least  _ the thing _ was out now and he knew her opinion on it. 

“ _ clever _ ,” he said and leaned back in his chair.

“you’re terrible,” she said dryly. 

“you already said that, thank you,” he muttered and looked back at the sheets of paper on the desk. “now, if you’d mind,  _ i do need your help  _ with this.” 

“oh, do you?”

“yes, i do. i  _ promise _ you, there are no games behind this. this is serious and if we want to get solaria’s spells, we need to do this  _ together _ ,” he said. 

she grinned and crossed her arms. “all right. just let me say this: i bet we will win over solaria this time  _ only because  _ you asked me for help.”

“that’s a bold thing to assume,” he muttered.

“oh, just like you said:  _ thank me later _ ,” she said while sitting down on the chair again.

she would show him. 

**~*~**

**sunday, november 25.**

— she couldn’t stop grinning. 

it was both the  _ satisfying _ feeling of victory and the smugness she felt within her. 

she held the formulas of solaria in her hand while they teleported back to cloud tower. it was in the middle of the night, it was storming outside. yet the silence coming from valtor only made her feel more satisfied. 

“you two can go,” he said and she didn’t miss the slight  _ growling  _ in his voice. “you help me with the spells. i want to talk to you,” he added and icy tried  _ so hard _ to suppress her grin. 

he was so pissed because she had been right. 

darcy gave her a sceptical look but nodded right before she left with stormy. once they were gone, she felt valtor’s stern and  _ angry _ look on her. she turned to him casually, her hair swung slightly. they walked to the office without saying a word, 

“now would be a really good time to thank me,” she said after they had entered the room and she had put the formulas on his desk. 

“you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” he asked and walked to the window, staring outside and watching her through the glass. 

“i told you this would be successful if you asked me,” she answered.

they had taken his base of the plan from the last time they had tried to get solaria’s spells - she had only put her ideas into it so it would be successful and they’d be able to get everything done in time. 

it had been  _ her _ ideas that had made this successful. it had been  _ her  _ ideas that had made them able to  _ win _ . 

so yes, she  _ was  _ enjoying this. for good reason. 

“don’t overestimate yourself.”

“don’t underestimate me.”

“i don’t. but i’ve told you before that you shouldn’t think your abilities are unfailable and perfect. we all started low and we all make mistakes,” he said and turned back around to face her. 

was he trying to get to her head again? 

she crossed her arms and grinned. 

“now that is interesting. i remember quite well that you weren’t  _ happy _ when we told you that we couldn’t get all the spells from alfea. or when you found out that i accidentally got flora her enchantix. i know you were angry because it didn’t work out like you had planned it even though you were able to hide it  _ pretty well _ . but yeah, now you’re seeing you made a mistake and it’s suddenly okay. makes me wonder if  _ everything is okay  _ if you’re the one doing it.” 

he looked at her without saying a word for a moment. she already expected him to get angry and to yell at her to tell her  _ how fucking wrong _ she was and that she could  _ shove her opinion elsewhere _ . 

“touché,” he said quietly. 

she raised her eyebrows in surprise when she realised what he said.  _ touché _ . he was giving in for now, he admitted that she was  _ right _ . 

interesting. and fascinating. 

“we’ll organise the spells tomorrow,” he added, sitting down on the chair. 

he was telling her to  _ leave _ for now. okay. she could live with that. 

she gave him a  _ not-so-genuine _ fake smile before leaving the office. she smirked when he couldn’t see her anymore.

this wasn’t  _ their _ victory.

this was  _ hers _ . 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> merry christmas everyone! :)  
> I hope you have/had a nice time this week. enjoy this week's chapter with a lot of valtor! :) <3

**~*~**

**sunday, december 2.**

— the loud noise of the book shutting didn’t help him reduce his anger. 

he tried to focus on his plans, he tried to concentrate on these spells, he just wanted to  _ get something done _ but he just wasn’t able to do anything. 

whenever he started to write down a note for a plan, he started to  _ overthink _ . he started to think if this was  _ enough _ , if this would  _ work _ . he was starting to doubt himself and his abilities to plan and it made him  _ mad _ . 

whenever he wanted to read about a spell, he began to rethink. he wondered if he would need this, if this was necessary to know. he was beginning to question himself and his trust in his magical abilities and it fucking pissed him off. 

this was all  _ her  _ fault. 

he should never have asked her if she would help him. because now that  _ his _ original plan had failed but his plan with  _ her _ corrections had been successful - although they had almost had the same  _ dilemma _ , which had been completely ad absurdum - he was starting to think:  _ would his plan fail another time _ ? 

because if it did, he would have a problem. she would continue to doubt him and his plans. and he knew that at some point, she would want to take over. 

what he had told her the other day was right - she was no  _ master _ at planning, nobody was and they all made mistakes. but equally, she had been right too. if  _ her _ version of the plan would’ve failed, he would have told her how terribly useless she was. it had been his plan that failed, so it was logical that she had been mad and he had been upset as well, even though he hadn’t directly shown it. but he had said that it was okay to make a mistake with a plan -  _ because _ it had been his plan that failed.

he just  _ knew _ he would have reacted differently if it had been her plan. 

yet it bothered him that she made him doubt himself. that she made him feel  _ insecure _ about his abilities. and he had no fucking idea how to fix that. 

he leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms, closing his eyes and trying to  _ think _ . 

he felt the need to make her  _ prove  _ that she really was good at planning, making strategies. 

he saw her in his inner eye standing confidently in front of him. arms crossed, expressionless face, stern glance. her eyes were still  _ fascinating _ . he remembered he hadn’t even been able to see her eyes when she had stood in front of his ice block. they had been transparent. it always felt like he was looking through his block of ice whenever he looked into her eyes. they were the same colour. like real ice.  _ simply fascinating.  _

her hair straight and perfectly bound back as always. not a single strand off. her two bangs flowing down in slight curls over her ears, reaching her shoulders. it always made him wonder how she was making her hair look so  _ perfectly clean. _

objectively, she was attractive and pretty.

_ stop _ .

he wasn’t supposed to wonder about how she looked when she stood in front of him. he was supposed to fucking find out how he could get  _ proof _ that she was  _ good _ . good at planning and strategizing. valtor sighed and stood up, walking to a map of the magical dimension. 

as soon as he stood in front of it, a lot of the planets started to glow in a purplish colour. magix started to glow blueish. 

solaria, andros, linphea, espero, oppositus, zenith, melody, eraklyon, umbra, callisto, dolona, ciem, rével and some other minor planets he couldn’t remember glowed purple. there were only a few planets still remaining white. 

minor planets. planets he didn’t necessarily need to mess with now because they would surrender as soon as he would win anyhow. because they were just so unimportant and insignificant. 

status quo, seven minor planets and one major planet. a planet he didn’t need because it was  _ dead _ . 

_ domino _ . 

domino had no government, no monarchy that could stop him from winning. domino had never been a threat to him now, since bloom was the only  _ other _ person from domino. 

but domino, despite being frozen and dead, had one thing in common with every other planet. 

spells and formulas. 

its own ancient magic. 

magic he could use to win. books that could help him succeed. 

he wouldn’t want to pay a visit to domino - it was too cold for him in the first place and furthermore, there were  _ things _ that would remind him of another time. 

icy could go. she had no connection with domino. she could survive in that cold. 

and he knew where the spells, formulas and books were hidden. she could reach that. but she’d have to make her own plan, find her own path through this  _ extra _ mission. and he’d watch her making this plan, watch her realising it. 

either she’d succeed or she’d fail. he’d know. 

he smirked once he became aware how  _ good _ this idea would work. 

he sat back on the chair at the desk, writing his thoughts down. 

he’d call for her in the morning. 

  
  
  


**~*~**

**thursday, december 13.**

— she just sat there. 

she sat there, completely unbothered by anything. her arms were crossed over her chest, her feet were on the desk, a little golden box next to them. she looked at him and smirked when he stood in front of the desk.

_ what the hell was she up to? _

he raised an eyebrow, looking down to her sceptically.

“what are you doing?” he asked, nodding toward the chair she was sitting on. this was his chair, she had never been sitting in it since they were here together. 

she touched the box with the tip of her heel, nodding in its direction. 

“i got what you wanted,” she replied casually, “the spells of domino,” she stood up from the chair and walked around the desk.

he watched her every move until she stood still next to him and crossed her arms again. she wasn’t smirking anymore, now there was a stern and cold look in her eyes. when she didn’t say anything anymore, he turned around to the box, carefully opening it and realising  _ she was telling the truth _ . 

he took a deep breath before turning back to her,  _ looking her in the eye _ and saying, “thank you,”

she didn’t smirk, didn’t grin. there was no change in her expression, nor in her stance. 

“you’re welcome,” she said, as if he had been  _ nicely asking her _ to do this.

she turned around to leave the office but turned back to him once she stood in front of the door. 

“and next time, i’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t  _ sit back and enjoy yourself _ while spying on me,” she said and opened the door, closed it behind her again as she entered the hallways. 

valtor leaned against the desk. 

he felt a lot of things right now and he didn’t fucking know how to address just one of them. 

she was unpredictable. 

**•••**

— he leaned back in the chair. the way she had talked to him earlier still hadn’t left his brain. the way she had looked into his eyes, not even slightly afraid of what he was able to do. he was more powerful than her, magically and physically, he couldn’t, wouldn’t, hesitate to use a deadly spell at all. 

he paused his thoughts. something about this didn’t feel right, it didn’t make sense. why was he doubting himself? 

the first part of the thought was true - he was physically and magically, although the second part was debatable, stronger than her. but the second part? he wouldn’t hesitate to use a deadly spell at all. against her. no.  _ no. _

that was wrong. something about it was simply wrong. and he hated it that he couldn’t tell what was wrong about it exactly. 

deadly spell? no problem, he knew a bunch of them and he had already used a few. hesitate? no. he never did. against her? was it that? he wouldn’t, couldn’t, use a deadly spell against her?  _ couldn’t he? _

rationally, he could. she was a witch, nothing he couldn’t deal with, ability wise. but irrationally? 

there was something off about it. 

but she had dared to talk to him like she was the one giving orders here - she had sat in his chair. it sounded childish but it wasn’t. she had done it to show him that she didn’t give a single damned fuck about his authority and that she was working for him. she wasn’t below him and _ she didn’t fucking care.  _

it should piss him the fuck off. he should be angry. people who had done the same in the past to him had died a torturous death. they weren’t allowed to disrespect him like this. he should be angry with her - put her in her place and show her to never disrespect him ever again. 

but he wasn’t angry. weirdly enough, he wasn’t even pissed off about it. 

there had been something about it - about him coming into his office and seeing her in his chair, her legs on the table. she had had her arms crossed on her chest, the defiant look in her eyes as she had watched him coming closer. she hadn’t flinched for a second. not even when he had asked her in a  _ not-so-friendly _ tone what she was doing. he had wanted to know why she was sitting there but she hadn’t cared and talked about the spells she got him. 

something about this didn’t make him angry but he couldn’t put his finger on it. clearly, this was about  _ her _ . he would’ve taught anyone else a lesson about respect but she... 

who was she, to begin with.  _ what did he know about her? _

icy. nineteen years old, born on december 20, ergo soon to be twenty. she was the witch of ice, the heiress of belladonna. she had studied at cloud tower for three years, almost graduating until she got expelled by griffin herself. she had almost taken over magix when she had been seventeen. she was the first known person to ever succeed at taking the dragonflame. 

she was calm, calculated and cold, yet unpredictable.  _ exceptionally _ powerful for her age and  _ incredibly _ intelligent. she was proud, relentless and fearless. she knew exactly what she wanted. 

_ but what did she want? _ it never occurred to him to ask her that. he had always assumed she was following the same goal as him - taking over the universe - as she had never said something. maybe there was something else she was searching for, maybe not. either way, he didn’t know but he wanted to. 

where did she come from? he had never asked her about her origin and she had never mentioned it. but he was interested. did she have a family or was she an orphan? what had happened to her? because clearly, something  _ had happened. _ he sensed it. 

he knew something about her but then again he didn’t. she was hiding a few things from him, obviously, and he was curious about it.  _ she was still a mystery, a riddle he had to solve _ . 

but the lack of knowledge he had about her wasn’t the reason why he was differently affected about the incident earlier. 

he sighed and closed his eyes. he should overthink this some other time. it was one of the rare nights he was actually tired. 

while slowly falling asleep, the only thing he saw in his mind was her sitting on a  _ throne _ . she wore a dark blue dress that was fitting her way too well and a sparkling,  _ yet beautiful _ , crown on her head. 

before he could wonder what this was supposed to mean, he drifted to sleep. 

  
  


**~*~**

**thursday, december 20.**

— happy birthday to herself. 

it was late in the afternoon and it was the first time today she could take a moment for herself. darcy and stormy had baked her a cake (although she was pretty sure  _ darcy _ baked the cake and stormy had only sat there to taste the dough) and had taken her out to their spots in magix they used to hang out at. normally, they didn’t do a lot for each other’s birthdays. but they didn’t get to celebrate darcy’s nor stormy’s this year as they had been with darkar or in prison that time. this was the first birthday they could celebrate together and they did. 

but now the day turned evening and darcy still had a date with riven today and stormy just wanted her peace, so she was fine with that. 

she unlocked her phone to see a text from darko while sitting down in one of the armchairs in the library. 

_ ‘happy birthday x. _

_ i’ll be back in magix in two weeks, we can make up for today once i’m back.’ _

at least something. 

some of the people she actually considered something like  _ friends _ also sent their congratulations. she didn’t have any contact to them since she got expelled and she knew most of them didn’t even like her anymore but she didn’t care. she had darcy and stormy and that was enough. they were her best friends, they were all she needed. and occasionally, she had darko.

and then there was valtor. 

she hadn’t seen him today - she hadn’t seen him in a few days actually - and to be completely honest with herself, she was more than happy about that. she didn’t need to hear his voice today. she didn’t need to look into his eyes today, trying to figure out whether he was playing one of his twisted mind games or not. no, she didn’t need his negativity today. 

it didn’t need five minutes until she heard footsteps behind her. and they definitely weren’t darcy or stormy’s. 

they were  _ his _ . 

of fucking course. why did he have to ruin every day like this? what the hell was his mission?

she turned around to him, trying to act as if nothing was going on. to her surprise, he had a hint of a smile on his lips. 

_ what in the dragon’s name? _

“what are you doing here?” she asked, got up from the armchair and threw her phone on it. 

“i wanted to thank you again for getting me the spells from domino. and i wanted to give you a gift.”

what in the fucking world was he up to?

was he okay? did he fall on his head this morning? was she supposed to be worried about him? 

“how do you know?”

for real. how did he know it was her birthday? she couldn’t remember ever telling him. 

“i just know,” he shrugged, “ _ happy birthday _ .” 

“thank you,” she answered hesitantly. 

he stayed quiet for a moment, looking into her eyes. she didn’t know what to say either, this situation felt so odd for some reason.

“so… about your gift. take it as both a thank you and a birthday gift,” he finally managed to say. 

she watched him creating a little, greenish and purplish flame in his left hand. that was magic. she didn’t know exactly what kind of magic but she knew it  _ was _ magic. but why would he give that to her? he never mentioned he’d share his collected powers and apart from that  _ one tiny incident _ with stormy, he had never done it before. and they hadn’t questioned it. 

she frowned when she looked at him again. 

“this is a mix of domino’s and callisto’s magic. it protects one from parts of the dragon flame and makes one stronger,” he explained quietly, “i want you to have it.”

again, why would he be so  _ generous _ to spontaneously share his magic? not that she was complaining.

still a little hesitant, she took a step toward him. she took the flame into her own hand and closed it; the magic contained in the flame spread through her body. it was like a soft touch of the wind, a shield of protection forming around her.

in other words, it felt  _ fucking fantastic. _

it had been a while since she had been able to absorb new magic. the last time had been when darkar had given her this, in all honesty  _ ugly _ , glowy necklace. 

and even that had been different. 

the necklace had only doubled her strength, multiplied her magic. the magic valtor had given her  _ merged _ with her magic, became a part of her in the very same second she had gotten it. it was different. 

everything was different. 

only when she opened her hand and her eyes again, she noticed he had been staring at her the entire time. the look in his eyes wasn’t stern or lurkingly  _ or anything like that.  _ it was calm, it was observing as if he was trying to notice every detail, every movement of her. it was  _ trust _ .

was it?

valtor grinned slightly when he noticed she was done absorbing the magic. 

“enjoy your birthday,” he said and turned around on the spot, leaving the library.

she still stood there, trying to realise what had just happened. 

their conversation, their interaction had felt so odd.

but at the same time, it had felt so  _ right. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy new year everyone! :)

**~*~**

**monday, december 31.**

— why was he so fucking confusing?

the way he looked at her  _ right now _ was definitely new. his eyes were fully focused on her, not even on the thing she was carrying, and they held an  _ interesting new  _ sparkle. and just like he had on the day of her birthday, he carried a hint of a smile on his lips. what the hell did this mean?

she held a box in her hands. a marble box with golden ornaments on the sides. it had a lid made of glass, reflecting the dim light of the few lamps in the room. what was inside this box could easily kill him,  _ no _ , not only kill him but  _ destroy  _ him. extinguish him. he wouldn’t only be  _ dead _ , he would be gone. 

she had to admit, it was a scary thought to have. after all this time, she knew they needed him to win. and they were so close,  _ so incredibly close _ . they couldn’t lose this, they needn’t. they  _ had to _ win, once and for all and this stupid game of life and death could be over. 

as much as this was able to  _ destroy _ him, it was also able to destroy someone else. 

_ bloom _ . 

it had been easy, so strangely easy to win against her this time. she had been alone with the specialists outside of the red tower - after all, she still didn’t have her enchantix and apparently she would’ve needed that to go inside that red tower. thanks to that and to the  _ new magic _ valtor gave her, she had been able to take out bloom so easily and quickly. it had been absolutely ridiculous. 

she hadn’t been  _ that _ quick even in their first fight so many years ago. 

and now, she was back in cloud tower. darcy and stormy stood next to her, keeping their respective distance from the box.  _ reasonably. _

valtor didn’t look at her, he stared at the box while she put it on his desk and carefully opened the lid. 

the water stars were able to extinguish the dragon flame. they were the only thing in this universe they could use to not only stop bloom but to destroy her. but in the same way, they worked against valtor. 

icy herself was pretty safe with them. she was the one in this room that had the tiniest amount of dragon flame in her. they couldn’t really hurt her, maybe just a scratch.

valtor took a step back when the water stars hovered in the air above the desk. for the first time since she had met him, he looked like he was genuinely afraid. it was an odd sight. 

she touched one of the stars and it started glowing  _ disgustingly _ bright. fortunately, it stopped after a minute and the stars went back into the box and she closed it. she looked at valtor.

“put them on that shelf and seal it,” he pointed in the direction and she placed the box right there. she used a spell to seal them just like he had told her. 

he looked at her again with the same look as before. sparkling eyes, a hinting smile on his face. was this mockery? 

but why should he mock her right now? she was in the place to mock him because he  _ for sure _ didn’t want to touch the water stars without any help or he’d  _ blow himself up  _ and vanish in thin air. besides, they had succeeded in bringing him the water stars. it could’ve turned out  _ differently _ if they were being honest here. and in that case he should fear for his forsaken life. 

it wasn’t mockery, it couldn’t be. 

it wasn’t anything negative, strangely enough. 

but what then?

admiration? no.  _ no. _ definitely not. happiness? she had never seen him happy since they were allies but she doubted he ever looked happy. 

pride?

_ pride? _

was he proud of them? of her? for what? 

pride seemed like the most accurate word to describe the way he looked at her and  _ by the dragon _ , it felt weird thinking that. 

“thank you,” he said and nodded,  _ still _ with that look in his eyes, “we should be prepared for an attack at any time now. they need the stars as much as  _ we _ do. but for now, you can rest.” 

while she was leaving the office behind darcy and stormy, she still felt his eyes on her back. 

she figured he’d call for her to use the water stars at  _ least  _ tomorrow morning. then she could find out what the hell his glance meant.

until then, it felt so,  _ so _ strange.

  
  


**~*~**

**tuesday, january 1.**

— just like she had guessed, he had called for her. 

but it was different than she had thought. he sat at the desk as usual, his hands folded in front of his face. last night, he had looked at her with something she had defined as  _ pride _ but now his eyes were blank again. expressionless, emotionless. there was nothing in them, not even mockery or hate.  _ nothing _ .

he looked up when she stood in front of the desk, her hands resting on the table. she tilted her head while waiting for what he was going to ask from her.

he looked at her for a long moment, his eyes were still blank. she wondered what was going through his mind right now. was he analysing her again? was he thinking about the reason he had called her here? she couldn’t tell by his dead stare.

after what had seemed to be an eternity, he lowered his hands and took a breath, pointing to the shelf. 

“would you be so  _ kind _ to transfer their magic into this?” he asked, reaching for a golden brooch with a shiny ruby. 

he was certainly not in a good mood today.

for whatever reason, she didn’t know. maybe his hair didn’t look perfect today or his damned bordeaux cloak was dirty.

“sure.”

she took the box from the shelf, placed it on the desk and opened it. valtor gave her the brooch and she took it from his hand - her fingertips touched his gloved hand for a split second and she tried  _ hard _ not to flinch at the contact. 

his hand was warm, really,  _ really _ warm. the glove he was wearing felt soft, unlike she had expected. 

_ wait.  _

yes, she had wondered what his gloves felt like, whether they were stiff and rough or soft. wasn’t that just  _ weird _ ? but in all honesty, what  _ wasn’t _ weird these days with him?

the water stars were hovering above the box while she watched valtor leaning back in his chair to create some distance between him and the stars. she took a deep breath.

she concentrated on the water stars and on the empty brooch. it took her a long while to ensure she wouldn’t  _ accidentally _ kill him before she was able to merge the stars all together. she slowly and carefully transferred their magic into the brooch. 

the water stars were gone, now they only existed inside the brooch. 

had she just messed with ancient magic without realising it until now? 

since when—

“impressive,” he commented quietly but it didn’t sound like he meant it. his eyes were still empty. had he tested her?

“what?” she asked while putting the brooch inside the box, closing it and putting the box back to the shelf. 

“i’ve never seen someone perform something like that completely unprepared,” he muttered, more to himself than to her actually, “it’s impressive.” 

she thought she imagined him adding a very quiet ’ _ you’re impressive _ ’ under his breath. but it had been too quiet and too quick for her to be sure he had said it or not. 

“thank you?” she said, unsure about what to say at all. 

“there’s a lot of potential in you,  _ icy.” _

_ since when was he saying her name? _

“both magically and in terms of plans. i want to see where that potential goes, that’s why i want you to help me with my plans and in return, i can teach you some spells and magic. if you want to, of course,” he said and looked at her without a break. 

was he serious? 

she knew she didn’t have the time to contemplate too long on this. and just alone the chance that she could correct his stupid and lacking plans? perfect. everything else was a side effect she’d decide whether it was good or not later.

“uh, yeah. sure,” she answered, trying to sound as casual and confident as possible. by all means, that was harder than she expected. she was nervous but also excited about his offer.

“great. just… come here some time tomorrow,” he answered and she nodded, then turned around and left the office.

she deeply hoped she had made the correct decision. 

**~*~**

**friday, january 4.**

— she closed another book and put it on the pile next to her. 

she was just searching for  _ one single spell _ but neither she nor valtor could find it. and they had gone through  _ at least _ ten books per person. she sighed and reached for the next one.

“this is ridiculous,” she muttered while skimming the pages. 

“but the spell will help us,” he mumbled, turning a page.

“are you sure about that? blindness spells  _ can be  _ helpful, yes, but layla was able to get over that with her precious fairy dust,” icy asked him. she had almost forgotten about that. but she knew she had a point - layla had been able to cure herself from valtor’s spell. it hadn’t mattered how strong he had been.

he put his book down, leaned back in his chair and stared at the door. “hm. possible. although the spell i used on her was basic dark magic, something everyone can do. that was easy to reverse,” he said. 

she stayed silent for a moment. she tried to think through this. it was an important part in their strategy for the final fight.

_ final fight. _

it felt strange to even think about that. she’d come so far before but this time she had a really good feeling that they wouldn’t fail. 

valtor planned their attack to be in over a month, they had so much time to prepare. they had the water stars - she would have to use them to  _ get rid of _ bloom. after so many years. finally. 

she knew she had made the right decision a few days ago. apparently, he wasn’t  _ that _ terrible at making plans after all. and the two times he had shown her some spells and other things she could do with her magic had been  _ fascinating _ , in fact. 

she actually enjoyed working with him. 

“true. but i still think we should think this through again. i’m not sure if this’ll work like we want it to. they could be really quick with their fairy dust,” she finally said.

valtor sighed. “you love finding weak spots in my plans, right?” he asked. 

she shrugged and ignored him, rather looked at the next page of her book. “if your plans are this terrible, yes,” she said.

apparently, he wasn’t really in  _ the right mood _ to hear something like that from her. not that he ever was. he took a breath as if he was trying  _ not to  _ yell at her now. 

surprisingly, he sounded rather amused. 

he almost  _ laughed _ . “ah yes, let’s remember who showed up drunk because my plans ’ _ suck _ ’.”

for real? that had been almost three months ago.  _ and _ they had talked about it. obviously, he was just joking but it still struck a nerve in her. 

“i didn’t say that,” she argued. because she really had not said  _ that _ . 

“but you were thinking about it,” he replied. 

“perhaps,” she said and shrugged. she couldn’t argue that. “at least i can openly tell you when i like your ideas and don’t look at you with sheer pride.”

if he was going to play that game, he should be ready for her to do the same. there were things he, more or less consciously, did that she remembered. and they were equally odd as her being drunk and running into him. 

but of course, he would deny it. 

“that didn’t happen.”

she looked at him. “well, it did.”

he stayed silent for a moment, staring at her. once again, she couldn’t really read anything from his eyes. he was looking at her, only her. completely focused on what she was doing, what she was saying. he had rarely really paid attention to her  _ like that _ . 

after a while, he looked at his book again, shrugging. 

“maybe,” he muttered. he noticed she had a point. and then he added, in a quieter, even more  _ hesitant _ voice, “maybe it’s just the fact that you’re not so stupid about liking me anymore.” 

_ of course he would make sure to throw some salt in her wound. _

“because _ i like you, too _ .”

she stayed silent for a moment, in shock. 

what did he say?

he liked her? 

like her as she liked him?

for some weird and  _ unexplainable  _ reason, her heart beat a  _ lot _ faster than it should.

she tried to overplay that so he wouldn’t notice. 

“well, how could you not, right?” she answered sarcastically, and despite what she expected,  _ he smiled.  _

and it made her smile  _ too _ .

shit.

  
  


**~*~**

**tuesday, january 8.**

— the hour was late. 

the moon shone brightly through the window of the library. she sat sideways on the brown leather armchair and watched valtor. he was trying to show her a spell. show her how to absorb other people’s magic, no matter the spell. 

she only paid half her attention to that. 

the rest of it was more on her thoughts about him. since he had told her that  _ he liked her too _ a few days ago, it hadn’t left her mind. 

what exactly did he mean by that? 

liking her as in  _ enjoying to work with her _ ? as in  _ enjoying her presence, along with her character and her humour?  _ as in  _ enjoying the time with her and having fun? _ or all of it? 

what was it exactly? 

she liked him as in enjoying to work with him, the time she was spending with him and his presence. in all this time they had been spending together now, she had started to appreciate his damned humour too. 

_ all of it _ . 

she blinked and tried to push that thought away. he was talking to her right now, anyways. 

“are you listening?” he asked and walked a bit closer to her. 

“yeah, sorry no. what did you say?” she asked him and stood up from her seat. she crossed her arms and looked up to him.

“i wanted to ask you if you want to try it now,” he said and grinned a little. probably because he knew she hadn’t been paying attention to him. 

“sure,” she nodded and walked over to the spot he had just stood at. 

she turned around to face him. he had crossed his arms and had his  _ typical _ smirk on his lips. 

“are you ready or are you lost in your head again?” he asked smugly. 

she tilted her head and folded her arms across her chest. she grinned at him. 

“if you keep on waiting, i might do that, yes,” she answered and immediately got into position. 

he shook his head and grinned, then shot a simple and very weak fire sphere at her. she remembered the movements he had shown her and used those to absorb the sphere. she opened her eyes and it was gone, she felt the magic rushing through her veins. 

that had been easier than she expected. 

she looked up to him and he nodded. there was pride in his eyes again. it still felt strange to see him looking at her like that. 

“that was way better than my first try,” he admitted, his voice sounding a little stunned. 

“thanks,” she grinned. she hoped he knew she wouldn’t forget about that compliment. 

“you can also absorb the magic and add a little of yours. it makes the spell stronger but you don’t give as much energy into it,” he explained 

“let’s try it,” she said and waited for him to shoot another sphere at her. 

and he did. it was a little stronger this time but she was able to absorb it nonetheless. she concentrated on her own magic, adding it to the energy of the sphere she had just absorbed. 

she instinctively knew when it had worked. and then she shot it back at him. 

he hadn’t predicted this,  _ obviously _ , and the sphere hit his face. he groaned in pain and put his hand on his cheek. she suppressed her laugh and walked up to him. 

“ouch,” he muttered and turned his face back to her. he slowly put his hand away. 

the outer corner of his eye was swollen and red and he had a scratch on his cheek. on one hand, she felt kind of sorry for that - after all, she had hurt him. but on the other hand, she was amused. this is what he got from training her. 

she took another step to him,  _ not even half a metre between them anymore _ , and raised her hand to his cheek, using her magic to cool his scratch. he closed his eyes and took a breath.

“sorry,” she muttered. 

he  _ hmm _ ed for a moment, then he softly shook his head and grinned. “you’re not,” he said. 

she chuckled. “no, i really am,” she said quietly. 

“right,” he grinned. 

she lowered her hand and looked at the scratch again. her cooling magic had healed his eye, that looked fine again. she turned away from his cheek and looked at him again. and for the first time now, she startled at  _ how close  _ they were. 

he opened his eyes again and looked down to her, his grin was gone now. there was something in his eyes, something new. 

instead of taking a step back, instead of telling her to go back for more practise - instead of clearing his throat to show her she should keep some respectful distance from him, he stayed silent and slowly raised a hand and hesitantly put it on her cheek. 

normally, she would’ve pushed his hand away, told him to  _ fucking leave her alone _ . normally, she would’ve left and avoided him for a week. but right now she let him. it felt strangely pleasant. his hand felt warm, really warm but nice. he still had his gloves on but she still felt the warmth. 

she still looked into his eyes, observing every detail in them. steel blue with little, dark blue dots in them. 

he looked down at her lips for a split second and from there it only took a moment until he came closer to her with his face. she raised her head and stood on her toes - she was way smaller than him without her heels on - to do the same. 

she closed her eyes when they kissed. once again, she felt the same thing like in the last weeks. so odd but so right. her heart was beating hard against her chest and she knew this wasn’t because of a potential lack of air. 

but the real reason made her so much more afraid. she didn’t want to think about it, she didn’t even want to feel it, although it felt so  _ good. _

_ damn it. _


	8. Chapter 8

**part III**

_it’s a dangerous game of death and love._

  
  
  
  


**~*~**

**monday, january 14.**

— things were different between them. 

it felt strange but good and bizarre but amazing. he had no idea what was going on with them, exactly, but he couldn’t be mad about it. he had never, ever, in his _very long_ life felt like this and, to be completely honest, it made him _afraid_ to some extent. but in general, it just felt _amazing._

every time he looked at her, there was a tingling feeling somewhere in his chest and it felt weird but so pleasant at the same time. he felt so stupid. he felt like a ten year old boy who was crushing on the prettiest girl in the village everyone had a crush on. he felt ridiculous. but then again, he felt way too good like this to give a fuck. 

“i think i found something. give me a moment to read this, maybe it’ll help us,” she said.

“sure.”

a quick look at the clock told him it was four minutes past three in the morning. no sign of the sun outside, only the waxing crescent moon shining through the huge window of the library. they had been searching for spells and strategies they could use for their final fight against the fairies for four hours now. 

he knew it was important to find something. but he couldn’t concentrate on anything but her. her and all of the things he was feeling right now. she sat on the armchair, her elbow on the left armrest, her legs were swaying over the right one. she had her hair tied up in a bun, her face already showed some signs that she was _exhausted_ and _tired_ but they were still here and she was still reading. she looked beautiful.

just like in the night that had changed everything between them. he had been so _amazed_ by her abilities and by her powers, even when she had accidentally hurt him. they had been as close as they had never been before. she hadn’t pushed him away, she had stayed. and then they had kissed. it had just felt right. his heart had been beating _so incredibly hard and fast_ in his chest. she was beautiful and powerful and she liked him. it had been an overwhelming night for him - and for her too, probably. 

she didn’t seem as she was regretting anything. the next time they had met to discuss their plans, she had entered the room with a smile on her face. not a wide one. it had been slight, but she had never done so before. not for a single moment in the time they had been working together now. 

they hadn’t kissed again. but frankly, that was due to the fact that darcy and stormy had been around while planning for the last week. they had wanted an update on the progress and they found a spot on which their advice would be even more helpful than icy’s alone. in fact, this was the first time they were all alone and safe again. according to icy, stormy was already asleep now and darcy was out with her boyfriend. 

“this is going to help us a lot,” she finally said and he nodded, all of his attention was on her now. 

“go on.” 

“there is a way to disable fairy dust. it’s a very old and complicated spell but i think we should be able to do it. the only problem is that i can’t read the language the spell is written in. it sounds like some ancient version of a language from domino or callisto,” she explained. 

it sounded good.

_no,_ it sounded perfect. 

the only advantage the winx had was their fairy dust. it could cure _any_ of their spells and that was unbelievably dangerous. bloom was the only one who didn’t have her enchantix - and it would be hard for her to get it once he told her how to - but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous enough. 

“show me, maybe i can read it,” he said.

she raised a brow. “really?” she asked while standing up from the armchair and walking over to him. 

“you’d be surprised if i told you i can read a lot of ancient languages,” he muttered and took the book, she pointed with her finger to the spell and he started reading. he noticed she was walking around his armchair, standing still on his left side and sitting on the armrest. 

“the spell itself isn’t hard to remember but it needs a lot of energy. and there’s something noted here. if i remember this correctly, it says that if the spell goes wrong, the person doing the spell will lose their magic,” he translated bit by bit. 

and there went that plan. 

“great,” she sighed, not hiding the disappointment in her voice.

“this would be a lot more helpful if there wouldn’t be a risk of this going wrong while we are in a fight,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest after putting the book down on his lap. 

“does it say losing the magic temporarily or permanently?” she asked.

he shrugged. “it doesn’t say anything. i really don’t want to know, if i’m honest.” 

she sighed. “just imagine what we could’ve done with that spell. we could’ve used it and they wouldn’t even know about it. and once they need their precious fairy dust to defeat us, it wouldn’t have worked. and then we would’ve destroyed them one by one.” 

“that would’ve been better,” he admitted, leaning back. 

he didn’t want to think about that failed attempt to find a spell now, he didn’t want to be in a bad mood. he closed his eyes, listening to her shifting slightly on the armrest. 

“imagine their dumb faces,” she continued and it really helped, “or picture this: we would’ve cursed bloom with some spell that could be cured with the fairy dust of the others but they realise it doesn’t work. and bloom has to realise she’s definitely going to die because of that curse and there’s no cure that will work in time,” she said. 

he grinned. “i like your mind,” he muttered. 

he opened his eyes again, looking at her. she smirked and this time it wasn’t him who leaned in first but her. the same feeling as the other night overcame him. he raised his head and she kissed him, this time it took longer. 

her lips were incredibly cold compared to his, it sent a shiver through his body but it didn’t feel _bad_. he carefully put his hand on her shoulder and caressed it with his thumb. his heart started beating fast again and he needed to part from her to get some air.

“what is this?” he asked quietly. he only opened his eyes now, brushing some of her loose strands behind her ear as they were tickling his face.

“i have no idea,” she admitted, a tiny smile on her lips, “but we can find out, right?”

he smiled too and nodded, then kissed her again. she put her hands on his neck. 

it was still strange. but it felt so good. 

  
  


**~*~**

**sunday, january 27.**

— she felt the edge of the desk in her back. 

it had been a rough day. they had been on a spontaneous mission to get a piece of an ancient artifact they needed for a preparation spell - and they had succeeded. 

and now she felt his hands on her back while her own were holding his face in place to kiss him. 

frankly, she had no idea why this was happening. she didn’t understand why she was feeling like she needed this. why she needed _him_ right now. why she felt like she never needed something like this before. 

she parted from him, just to take a breath and to look at him for a moment. he looked at her, his eyes darkened, as breathless as she was. he looked so good. but then again, he could’ve looked _any way_ and she would’ve thought that. 

she wrapped her hands around his neck, pulled him down to her and kissed him again. she felt him grinning against her lips and he reacted in lifting her up and placing her on the desk. 

her hands wandered down to his collar, playing with the hem of his shirt. she closed her eyes and took a deep breath when he parted for a moment. when she opened her eyes again, he slowly took off his coat and then turned all of his attention back to her. she smirked, he kissed her once again and this time, she was slowly opening the buttons of his shirt—

someone knocked _loudly_ at the door.

“icy? valtor? are you back?”

darcy. who else would find such _perfect timing_?

valtor hurried to close the three buttons of his shirt and took on his coat again, quickly sat down on the chair while she jumped down from the desk, walking to the other side and hastily checking her clothes and hair. 

“yes,” she finally answered. 

she hadn’t told darcy or stormy about what was going on between her and valtor. not yet. she wanted to do that as soon as she had figured out what the hell was _going on_ between her and him. 

it was obvious to her that she liked him. they had kissed, they had talked for hours, _by the dragon_ , they had just made out ten seconds ago. but she didn’t know what was going on. she didn’t know if this was something serious or if they were just… _playing around._

darcy and stormy entered, icy slowly turned around, hoping she didn’t look like she was expecting. 

“oh good. we were getting sceptical because it took you quite a while,” stormy answered.

they were sceptical because they were worried. icy knew even though they didn’t say it. 

“yes, we’re back. but we’re not done yet with discussing. there’s something i need to talk to you about,” he said.

she wasn’t sure if he really wanted to _talk_ to her or if he was just buying time unsuspiciously to continue what they had started.

“all right, we’re here if you… need our advice.”

the way darcy was talking and looking at her made icy _slightly_ uncomfortable. was she already guessing something? had they given away a hint? darcy was good and fast at that stuff. 

she nodded. “good.”

they patiently waited until they had closed the door and their steps were quiet enough to be sure they wouldn’t hear them anymore. 

“what do you want to tell me?” she asked and lazily sat down on one of the two chairs. 

“it’s about the spell that disables fairy dust,” he started, “i’ve been thinking about it and we need it at all costs. we need a part of their fairy dust and we need to try it out, we need to make sure that it’s going to work. there’s still that part about losing one’s magic which is why we need to try. i’ve been searching for spells to protect one from that and there are a few that might work. i’m going to try the fairy dust spell. i don’t want you to lose your magic,” he explained.

she shook her head in disbelief and shock. why would he even consider this spell again?

“are you listening to what you’re saying? you can’t lose your magic, no matter what. without it, we’ll lose against the fairies and you know that. the dragon flame is way too important,” she told him, her voice becoming hard and serious.

“i know but i’m not letting you do that spell.”

she took a breath, “we don’t need that spell, valtor, we’ll come up with something else.”

“we can’t. this is our best chance,” he stated and she couldn’t _fucking_ believe how wrong he was.

“i’m not letting you risk your magic for that spell. especially if you’re just _trying it out_. we can’t let that happen, we’ll be done for,” she replied. why wasn’t he listening to her? 

“and i’m not letting you risk that either. nor darcy or stormy. i can fight without magic, that’s not the problem. we need the spell or we’ll be done for.”

she shook her head and raised from her chair.

“that’s not the point. i believe that you can fight without magic but who’s going to destroy bloom’s essence then? i can use the water stars to hurt her but not to extinguish her. only you can and you need your magic for that,” she argued.

“ _you’re talented_ , you are able to do that with training.” 

“no,” she said, “i can harm bloom in any way but not the way you can and the way we need it to be done. we need your magic and there’s no way i’m letting you use that spell in any case.” 

he sighed, “icy, we need the spell. it would be foolish going into that fight unprepared.”

“no, it’s foolish to assume we’d win without your magic,” she said coldly, looked at him for a moment and then turned around, walking towards the door.

she heard him standing up from his chair but she didn’t want to hear anything from him now. 

“icy—“

“no. talk to me when you can think straight again.”

she shut the door behind her.

  
  


**~*~**

**wednesday, january 30.**

— she crossed her arms when she saw him walking into the library.

she still didn’t agree with his plan. and she didn’t want to talk to him when he still had this plan in mind. he should consider not risking their entire victory for his little _heroic stunt_ he wanted to do. whatever had crossed his mind so he had changed his plan… she didn’t want to know. she just wanted him to go back to being reasonable again.

“there you are,” he muttered. he kept his distance from her, probably because he was unsure how close he could be to her when she wasn’t necessarily happy to see him. 

she sighed, “why did you search for me?” 

he looked at her for a moment, not answering. normally, she’d be pissed that he was taking so long to answer but right now, she was _glad_ that he shut up for a second. 

she couldn’t read his glance. she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. she couldn’t figure out his feelings. she was back at square one considering this. 

“i need your help.”

“i don’t think you need my help with some foolish spells. you better not even think about—“

“it’s not about that, icy,” he interrupted her. his voice wasn’t as calm anymore. he was annoyed, if not angry. but why? 

she was supposed to be angry at _him_. but there was no reason why he’d be angry at her. maybe just the fact that she hadn’t talked to him in days but that was it and it hadn’t bothered him before. she wasn’t even angry at him. she wasn’t. she wasn’t even pissed.

truthfully, she was just disappointed in him. all this time, she had seen him as a really competent and intelligent person, despite their _little disputes_ one or the other time. hearing those stupid words from him, that he’d risk losing his magic forever so they would have a tiny bit more of a chance winning their last fight, was not what she had ever expected from him. 

she rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. 

“then what is it?” she asked, not bothering to stand up. 

“the winx are attacking dolona’s royalty. they are under our command and if we lose them, we don’t even have to talk about _that spell_ because we won’t win without it,” he answered. 

_oh well_.

she would’ve said she didn’t care but that would be a lie. this sounded terrible. and yes, she was ready to let her pride be and _talk_ to him. at least for now. she’d see how this would turn out later. 

but firstly, they had to win a fight.

“all right. give me five minutes and i’m ready,” she said and she had an idea, “but i tell you one thing. when we come back here, we’ll talk about that spell again.”

he nodded, “accepted.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm a bit late this time but this chapter is also a bit longer. :)
> 
> have a nice weekend! <3

**~*~**

**thursday, january 31.**

— she felt _intoxicated_. 

they had been successful, _obviously_ . the winx had to retreat when they noticed they didn’t have a single chance. they had not only defeated them, but _destroyed_ them in this fight. the fairies had looked so pathetic. so weak compared to them. 

one could say they had been _unstoppable_ tonight. 

it was just a few minutes past midnight when they arrived back at cloud tower. stormy sighed heavily, _over exaggeratedly_ , and sat down on one of the chairs in the cafeteria. 

“i’m done,” she said, “have your famous celebration words and i’m gone for sleep.” 

valtor wore a smile on his face, she saw it. it felt good seeing him like that. even though they still had a conversation to go through. 

“no famous words today, go to bed,” he said, still smiling. he was just as happy about their victory as she was. 

“great. are you two coming too?” stormy asked, her voice sounding completely exhausted. 

icy didn’t feel exhausted. quite the opposite. but she knew, once all of the adrenaline in her would be gone, she’d feel incredibly exhausted too. but not yet.

“i’m actually… having a date with riven,” darcy answered hesitantly. obviously, valtor was right next to her and she hadn’t told him about it face to face although it was obvious they both knew the other knew. 

“now?” stormy asked.

she shrugged, “we would’ve gone out a few hours ago but thanks to that, it got postponed. and honestly, i’d really want to go out with him alone now. this was exhausting.” 

“then go. i’ll come after you, stormy, just a few minutes, we still need to talk,” icy replied. 

stormy nodded and walked up the staircase to their dorm room while darcy had already teleported herself away. 

they were alone. once again. 

“ _you were incredible_. i already forgot about the water stars again, i’m glad you didn’t,” valtor finally said after they stood in silence for half a minute, “you knocked bloom out and you didn’t even have to put effort in it.” 

she turned around to him, looking up to him. his hair was a bit chaotic and there was a small wound on his cheek but other than that, he was fine. thank the dragon.

“see? that’s why we need your magic. i can hurt her with the waterstars as much as i could hurt you with them. but only you can destroy her with them. we don’t need a stupid, risky spell that gives us a tiny advantage,” she said, in a much calmer voice than she had before. 

he sighed but then he nodded. she took a breath and smiled a little. 

“you’re right. it was a good idea at first but the consequences if one tiny thing goes wrong are too terrible. i’m sorry. i didn’t want to make you angry,” he answered. she couldn’t believe he actually apologised for something.

“i wasn’t angry with you. i was disappointed. i doubted you for a moment but the way you were fighting earlier… i don’t know why i ever doubted you in the first place,” she said. 

he smiled a little and took a step toward her, coming closer to her again. she wore a hint of a smile on her lips and looked up to him. he was hesitant when leaning down to her but she put a hand on his cheek right before kissing him. 

she knew it was a bit risky, right in the middle of the cafeteria. stormy could come back any moment for her _midnight snack_ or darcy could stand next to them any second because she and riven decided to let their date night end here. but she didn’t care right now. all she cared about was him. she was too intoxicated and his presence and touch were only contributing to that. 

she frowned when he kissed her again after a really short break of getting some air. something was happening right now but she couldn’t tell what it was yet. she wanted to be close to him, she _needed_ him. he parted from her before she could figure out more.

“what do you think about celebrating this victory in the office? we can continue our plans… or just talk, if you want to,” he asked, his face only millimeters away from hers, his warm breath touching her skin while he was talking. 

she grinned and nodded. “i just wanna take a shower and check over this,” she pointed at her left arm. 

she had almost forgotten about her injury already. it had happened when layla had attacked her but she had just launched an attack at bloom. darcy had been quick to help her bandage it but now as she was calming down, it started hurting. not to mention the bandage was soaked with blood in the meantime. 

“i’ll see you in the office,” he said and smirked, turned around and left. 

**•••**

— she opened the door. 

he stood in front of the window, holding something in his hand. when he turned around to face her, she noticed it was a glass of wine. he smiled slightly at her and she closed the door behind her, walking up to him. 

she noticed the way he was looking at her. she had showered, cleaned up her wound and put a new bandage on it. but she had also taken on other clothes. she wore a dark blue, slightly shimmery, dress that ended just a bit above her knees. he had said he wanted to celebrate so she’d dress accordingly and appropriately. 

“ _you look beautiful,”_ he said quietly, smiling at her. 

she smiled back, reaching him in front of the window. “thank you.”

his hair looked fine again, straight and clean. the wound on his cheek was gone, he had cleaned it. he didn’t wear his burgundy coat anymore - she knew there had been blood on it - but only a black shirt and trousers. he looked good. too good.

“do you want a glass?” he asked and she nodded. 

he walked to one of the shelves, reaching for a glass and putting it on the desk, pouring some wine. he got back to her and gave her the glass. she smiled and thanked him, then turned around and looked out of the window. 

“what’s next?” she asked, not facing him.

she saw the stars in the sky, shimmering bright. seeing them shining like everything was normal always calmed her. but there seemed to be something off tonight. she couldn’t wrap her mind around it but something didn’t seem _right_. she wished she knew what was wrong but frankly, she couldn’t.

“well, judging by the way we stomped them into the ground, they will need some time to be fine again. which means we have a bit more time to plan things out,” he said, standing right next to her. 

she didn’t look at him when she answered. for some reason, she couldn’t take her eyes off the stars. 

“wouldn’t it be more effective if we attack them within the next week?” she asked. 

“not a bad idea. they’re weak, they have to recover. but if we want to do that, we have to do a lot of planning in a little time,” he muttered. 

she was finally able to break her focus from the night sky. she grinned and turned around to him, raising her glass. 

“it’s going to be easier when they’re weak. let’s do it and win,” she said.

he grinned and raised his glass as well. “deal.”

they clinked glasses and drank. she put her glass on the desk once she was done. 

“well then, let’s start this, shall we? the sooner we start, the sooner we win,” she said, already turning around to reach the bookshelves. he caught her hand before and softly pulled her to him. he smiled at her. 

“i wanted to thank you first,” he said, “you were amazing. we wouldn’t have won this if you hadn’t had the waterstars.” 

she grinned again, and before she could answer something, he kissed her. long and calm at first. but then she started feeling like she had earlier. she put her hand on his cheek, pulling him closer. she took a deep breath when she parted from him. he frowned, opened his eyes after a moment, looked at her and put his hand on her face, raising her chin to kiss her again. 

a lot more passionate this time. she felt heat rising inside her body, slowly but intense. she felt like she was craving for something. and she was pretty sure it was him. she took a step toward him, pressing her body against his only slightly. yet, she still felt his warmth. she felt his other hand on her waist, slowly travelling upwards and then down her back once he reached her shoulder. he broke the kiss for just a second.

it only took a second and she felt the cold wall behind her. he pressed her against the wall, kissing her passionately once again. her hands made their way up his neck, up to his cheek and back down again. she moaned quietly, parted from him and leaned back, her head back against the wall. 

he looked at her, his eyes dark, his hands holding her hips. she caressed his cheek and smirked at him. 

“looks like the planning can wait for a few more hours,” she whispered, still trying to catch her breath. 

he grinned and leaned in to kiss her again, then lifted her up - her legs wrapped around his hips - and carried her through the door to his room. he laid her down on the bed, kissing her again. she felt her heart beating so hard in her chest. she was still intoxicated by _everything_.

her hands searched their way to his collar, down to the buttons of his shirt. she opened the first one, then parted from him to take a breath. he just continued to kiss her, down her neck, causing her to moan softly.

she opened the next few buttons before he kissed her again, this time his tongue was slightly touching hers. she felt so, _so_ warm. and so right. she knew this is what she needed.

his hands trailed down her body and when they moved up her legs, down her dress, she rolled to the right, turning them both around and sitting on top of him. he looked up to her attentively and stroked her back while she opened her ponytail - her hair falling loose around her. she grinned and looked at him. his gaze fell on her left arm, eyeing her injury. 

“are you sure?” he asked softly, just as breathless as she was, while caressing the healthy skin around the bandage carefully. 

she nodded and smiled, then leaned down to kiss him again while opening the last two buttons of his shirt. she moved her hands over his body - he moaned in the kiss. his own hands worked their way up to get rid of her dress. she broke another kiss and sat up, helping him to undress her. 

he sat up as well, taking off his shirt and throwing it somewhere outside of their reality. she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him. her heart was beating fast, she always had to catch her breath, she felt warm and she already felt the sweat on her skin. normally, she was _never_ sweating. 

he broke the kiss, his hands moving to his belt and opening it. she kissed down his neck, down to his collarbones, and listened to his quiet moans while he was opening his trouser. she felt his hands on her back, unhooking her bra and helping her out of it. she pressed their bodies together and kissed him deeply. 

**•••**

— he was softly brushing the back of her neck with his fingers. she had just fallen asleep but he couldn’t take his eyes off her. 

she was _beautiful_ . so, _so beautiful._ her loose hair was spilled around the dark violet pillow, her eyes were closed and her expression was calm, peaceful. he had known from the start that she was beautiful, but he hadn’t acknowledged just _how_ beautiful she was. 

her skin was soft, almost flawless. fair and clean, almost like porcelain. just like her hair, shimmery and lucious, always flowing perfectly. she was dainty, yet fit. she was perfect in his eyes. her eyes still fascinated him, especially when she looked at him attentively. there had been so many emotions in her eyes, so many things he had noticed. yet, he couldn’t name one of them.

apart from her undeniable beauty, she had impressed him so many times in the last few hours. she had been amazing in the fight, her idea with using the water stars had been perfect. she was intelligent, she knew what she had to do in order to accomplish her goal. 

he regretted having ignored her when she had disagreed with him about the spell. he knew she was right - _when wasn’t she?_ \- but for some inexplicable reason, he had wanted to do that spell. now, he couldn’t remember why he had wanted to do it anymore. it was a good thing it was over. 

he watched her for a while, calming down and becoming tired when seeing her sleep. he slowly closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep. 

he remembered the scene he saw in his mind before falling into darkness from a month ago - icy was sitting on a silver throne, wearing a dark blue dress and a small crown made of shimmering ice shards. but this time, he saw more than that. he saw himself, kneeling on the marble ground in front of her. suddenly, he got the uncomfortable feeling she had been dragging him there. there was something off about all of this. 

he looked up to her, still on the ground. her face changed from hauntingly beautiful to a horrible grimase. she was smiling widely, from one ear to the other. a creepy smile, manic, _psychotic._

he wanted to stand up and run away as quickly as he could but when he tried to, he noticed that he was chained to the white marble floor. he tried to struggle but it didn’t work. 

footsteps were approaching and when he looked up, he saw her standing in front of him, looking down to him. her eyes weren’t in their normal, beautiful ice blue colour but a deep, rich red. they were _burning_ . when she spoke, her voice didn’t sound like hers at all. it sounded darker, older, _more frightening_. 

“it’s your own faut you let me in.”

**•••**

— she stood in nothing. 

literally nothing. everything around her was pitch black. no sign of light. not the slightest voice. _nothing_. 

she looked down on herself - she wore the same dress like last night and her hair was tied back as usual. there was nothing out of the ordinary. 

the night sky she had watched hours ago appeared all around her. illuminating the place she stood at but it wasn’t too bright. she felt like she could see all the stars there were. she could see a lot of star constellations she never ever saw before. they were beautiful. 

she turned around when she heard footsteps. valtor stood right behind her, dressed in a black coat, a black shirt and a black trouser. his hair looked flawless, not a single strand out of place. he smiled softly, reaching out a hand. 

she took a few steps toward him and put her hand into his, looking up to him. she felt good for a moment. 

and then everything turned around. 

the stars started shining in a reddish light, his hand was tightening around her hand that it _hurt_. she tried to pull her hand away but she couldn’t. he was stronger. she looked into his face again, this time he was smiling maliciously, his eyes red. 

she noticed ghost-like figures next to him. it took a moment until she understood - the ancestral witches. they were all grinning down at her, and certainly not in a nice way. 

their laughter filled the place. she flinched _heavily_ when something brushed her shoulder. then she heard lysslis’ voice in her ear.

“you’re getting too attached,” she whispered and icy felt a chill running down her spine. 

“he is not a human who will give you something like love,” this time, it was tharma talking. she didn’t touch her but she still felt the chilly air when she flew by. 

icy looked right into belladonna’s dead eyes when she raised her chin. there were goosebumps all over her body now and definitely not in a good way.

“you’re foolish. he has never felt _anything_ . he doesn’t know what feeling is. all he ever wanted from you was your _power_ , your _intelligence_ ,” she whispered but her words felt like knives stabbing into her skin, “ _he has never, ever, cared about you_. in fact, he never cared about anyone.” 

they laughed in unison. they flew in circles around her and valtor, who was still holding her hand and _squeezing_ it painfully. she tried to pull again once again but he only squeezed harder. 

he didn’t let go of her wrist when he got a step closer to her. she wanted to back away but now there was a wall right behind her. 

“you were a tool for victory. without you, i never would’ve come this far. once this is over, it’ll be over for you,” he spoke quietly, his face right in front of hers. he leaned down to her ear and whispered, “you were never important to me.” 

she looked down at her arm - blood streamed down her skin. she wanted to push him away, to yell at him. but he pressed her against the _non-existential_ wall and put his hand around her throat, slowly squeezing—

she sat up straight. 

it was storming outside, the rain making loud noises when it hit the windows. she breathed heavily while looking around. 

she was in bed, in _his_ bed, the black blanket covering her body. she was alone. the side he had been sleeping in was empty, his blanket was chaotically laying on the bed. everything was normal, it had been a dream. 

just a dream, just a dream.

_just a dream_.

yet, it felt strange. 

she lied down again, finally catching her breath. she closed her eyes and swallowed. 

it had felt too real to be a dream. it had been a nightmare, yes, but it felt real. 

the ancestral witches had to know about this now, didn’t they? they probably weren’t happy about it. she didn’t comprehend why but—

what if they knew all along? what if he had really been lying to her? what if he had used her this entire time, only doing _all of this_ because of her mistake that she had told him _she liked him_ , so she wouldn’t question anything. so she would shut the hell up, stop being sceptical about everything and simply _help_ him. 

she didn’t want to think this hadn’t been real. 

she stood up, picking up her clothes from the floor and getting dressed. she silently opened the door to the office and looked through the crack. 

he sat in the chair, facing the window. he wasn’t talking, he wasn’t reading, he wasn’t moving. he wasn’t doing anything. 

she wanted to talk to him but then again, she didn’t want to. 

she turned around again, walking back to the bed when she noticed something on his side. it was a white sheet of paper. something was written on it. she took a step and grabbed the paper. 

it was his handwriting, big, black and cursive letters. the message he wrote simply read:

_don’t._

  
  


**~*~**

**tuesday, february 5.**

— he couldn’t help himself but to feel strange. 

he still hadn’t seen her. he still hadn’t called for her. and he certainly hadn’t talked to her. 

for days now. 

to say it was counterproductive would be an understatement. they had agreed on making plans as quick and as soon as possible, yet they weren’t talking to each other. 

it was odd - they had had sex and now they didn’t talk to each other anymore.

not that he really _wanted_ to talk to her. not after what he had seen, what he had heard.

he knew it was just a dream but it didn’t leave his mind. the fact that she hadn’t talked to him and hadn’t even _tried_ to, was enough proof for him to know that what he had seen was the truth. plus his subconsciousness was never playing him. he knew if there was a threat approaching, he would know somehow. this had been a warning for letting her too close.

_by the dragon_ , the first time he had had this dream in a much more cryptic way, it had been a warning. 

he had been warned from the beginning and he hadn’t done anything about it because…. 

yes, because of _what_?

it was no secret anymore that he liked her. she was beautiful, she was intelligent, she was powerful - what was not to like about her? 

maybe he had been foolish to let himself go like this, without any second thoughts, to let her into his mind, his world, _his fucking heart_. 

yes, he liked her. and as weird as those words sounded in his head, he was _in love_ with her. 

there was no way he couldn’t be after everything. she was different than everyone else he ever met.

she was extraordinary. the way she was thinking, the way her mind worked impressed him over and over again. she kept up with his own thoughts and ideas, she understood them and she outsmarted him regularly. he liked it, which was odd, but he liked it. she made him feel good, she made him enjoy the time they were spending together. she was incredible.

and that’s exactly why it hurt so much, _so damn much_ , to know everything that had happened wasn’t honest. the things she said to him were lies, the way she had looked at him was played and acted - the affection she had shown wasn’t real. 

he didn’t raise his head when someone knocked on the door. he didn’t bother to say something. instead, he looked down at a book. 

yet, the door opened and the footsteps were way too familiar to him.

“what do you want?” he asked coldly and it hurt talking to her like that again. 

he had done so, once upon a time, when they hadn’t realised yet how well they worked together. 

“we can’t go on like this,” she said, her voice equally harsh and emotionless. he didn’t want to look into her face, he didn’t know if he could stand it.

“well, agreed. we need to go back to work,” he answered, slowly closing the book on his desk and finally looking to her. 

her hair was loose this time, a little messy. she wore a cream white sweater, a silver necklace with a little snowflake. she looked as beautiful as always but every thought of her in his mind hurt right now.

“do you have anything?” she asked and sat down on the chair. it didn’t sound as it normally did, way colder and distant.

yet, he nodded and pointed at one of the books on his desk. 

“you can read through that, if you want to. there’s spells for stopping light magic, maybe we can use something,” he said. she nodded slightly and took the book, put it on her lap and opened it.

he watched her with one eye while she was reading. she didn’t even look concentrated after a few minutes. she turned pages, probably without even noticing what was written or what charts they showed. 

it only took another minute before she shut the book.

“i can’t do it like this,” she finally said, “when will you apologise?” she asked and _that_ question pissed him off. why would _he_ apologise? she was the one who had been using him for her advantage - _she_ should be the one apologising if she wanted to have a _normal_ conversation with him again. 

“me? apologising for what?” he asked back. and he was right. 

she raised her brows in surprise for a moment, but then shook her head and sighed.

“oh yeah, sorry. bold of me to assume you would be sorry for anything,” she muttered, “you should count yourself lucky we got this far with your ongoing arrogance,” she added and it felt like knives stabbing into every part of his skin. 

it hurt. and it also made him really, _really_ angry. 

he stood up from his chair, “my ongoing arrogance? wow,” he repeated, “why was i even thinking you’d be here for a truce,” he wasn’t screaming at her, but he had definitely raised his voice. 

it just made him so mad that she acted like this was all his fault. it hurt him so much, it made him angry. but apparently, she didn’t _want_ to understand. she stood up, too, putting her hands on the desk.

“a truce? that’s what you call this?” she asked and she laughed as if she wasn’t believing him. 

“what would you call it? we’re back at square one, aren’t we?” he asked, a little quieter again.

“yeah. i see. _it really wasn’t worth caring about you,”_ she said, “you don’t care about me, i see. well, it appears i was right from the start. you are, indeed, terrible. _no wonder nobody likes you_ ,” she said. and it hurt. she turned her back on him and walked toward the door.

he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to breathe, trying not to yell at her. he didn’t want to scream at her, he just wanted her to _leave him the fuck alone_. 

“you’re no better than me,” he said, a calm but _ice cold_ tone. 

she chuckled and it just sounded sad and hurt, “good luck winning like this,” she slammed the door behind her.

he sat back down and wished he had never let her come closer as they had been before she had been drunk.


	10. Chapter 10

**sunday, february 18.**

— he had called for her. 

that was the only reason why she was on her way to the office. she wouldn’t have done this all by herself. 

well, she  _ had _ . and that time had ended in them fighting. he didn’t want to accept that he should apologise if he wanted her on board? okay. 

_ o-fucking-kay. so be it. _

he would notice that he needed her for this victory. she had tried to talk to him and he had refused, now it was his turn. and if he hadn’t a  _ really good _ explanation for all of this, he would experience the same rejection she had suffered. 

yes, she knew it wasn’t helpful for their plans  _ at fucking all _ but she didn’t care. he had hurt her, now he’d pay the price. 

she opened the door, closed it behind her again and walked up to the desk, sat down and crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking at him. she didn’t say a word and she wouldn’t until he started talking. 

he looked at her, his left hand holding a pen while his right one just turned a page of the book that laid open on the desk. his gaze was empty and distant, he looked tired. his coat hung on the back of the chair, he was wearing a white shirt. his sleeves were rolled up, he didn’t wear his gloves. he looked so exhausted, so done. 

the part of her that wasn’t mad at him, that was still hoping he’d apologise and they’d figure this out was  _ worried _ . she had never seen him like this. yes, most of her was angry that he used her but he looked absolutely  _ terrible _ like this. 

“good, you’re here,” he said.

that was all he said. he continued to look at her for a moment, then turned back to his notes and the book. she couldn’t read his notes but the page’s headline said ‘reverse spells’. whatever he was doing with that. 

this silence got on her nerves.

“why did you want me here?” she asked and now all of the  _ anger _ she had had inside of her since that day came up again. she didn’t intend to confront him so soon -  _ or at all _ \- but she impulsively had to, “you need my intelligence again to use it all for your advantages?”

it was bitter, it was salty. 

but she needed to say it, she needed to get it off her chest. 

he raised his head and looked at her again, this time more surprised than earlier. he didn’t look mad but his voice definitely sounded pissed.

“i never did that and you know it,” he said. 

_ oh _ , so now he was denying it? 

“funny. very funny.” 

he narrowed his eyes. “i’m not joking, icy,” he replied and it sounded so cold and serious, she had almost laughed. but the next thing he said was keeping her from laughing at all, “i’m not finding this funny at all. no wonder  _ you _ do after you’ve successfully lied to me for months. actually, i have to admit it was quite impressive. you’re the first one to succeed if that means anything to you.” 

what?  _ what? _

she had  _ not _ lied to him for months. she hadn’t ever lied to him, in fact. that thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. she knew he was powerful and she damn well knew better than to lie to him when she was already not in the best place to do that. and that had been the case for two weeks now. why would the thought of her lying to him even come across his mind? was he  _ delusional _ ? 

she frowned and tilted her head, looked at him as if he was talking in a language she didn’t understand. 

“what?”

he laughed but it sounded angry, “wow. i would’ve never thought about how manipulative you would be even when i’ve told you that i see through your fucked up game. it’s over, okay? once this fight is over, we will never see each other again, trust me.” 

if she hadn’t been confused before, now she was. 

was he telling her she was the one who has been using him? that didn’t add up. something was wrong. 

wasn’t he the one who had been using her all this time? 

why would he think it was her then? 

“i-”

“no, let me finish, please. when we win, you can have your part of what we have and i get my respective part. it’s that easy.”

“you think i used you?” she asked. there was something wrong about this entire conversation, she could feel it. but she couldn’t wrap her mind around it yet. 

he shook his head in disbelief, “what do you think we’ve been talking about this entire time? that i used  _ you _ ?”

his tone was still angry and loud and he looked at her in the same way but his face slowly started to soften. he was realising something and she figured it was the same thing she did. 

“you do think i was using you,” he stated, “and i’m thinking you’re using me,” he continued, “why?”

she shrugged, “i have no idea.” 

he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. 

“this is strange,” he muttered and stayed silent for a moment, “i wouldn’t use you. i never have. i think i know better than to mess with you by now.” 

she actually had to smile. this sounded more like she was used to. 

“i would also never do that, i… i really like you,” she replied and he smiled at her. 

it took a moment until he sat straight up and cleared his throat. 

“someone is behind this, i can tell you that,” he thought out loud, “when… when did you start thinking that? how did that happen?” he asked.

she put one leg over the other. “it was a dream, i think, or actually it was more of a nightmare. it was the night after we had sex and i fell asleep. it was… dark and you were there and i don’t know what exactly happened but the ancestral witches were there too and… i don’t know, they told me things about you. that you were only lying and using me and that i was stupid to… like you and that you don’t care about me. and then they disappeared and you confessed that you don’t like me and that you used me. and then i woke up and you weren’t there anymore,” she told him. 

he looked at her for a moment. it was the first time in weeks she actually saw something else in his eyes other than anger or disappointment. he was clearly worried. 

he did care about her, it didn’t matter what that nightmare had said. 

“i also had a dream like that. but you told me i was stupid to care about you,” he said, then shook his head, “i think that’s the ancestal witches’ fault. at least on your part. it’s always them when they show up in your dreams, i know that too well. as for me… i don’t know, maybe it was them too but.... they didn’t show up in mine.” 

he shrugged but something about his body language told her it bothered him more than he was telling her now. she leaned forward and softly put his hand around his, stroking over his skin with her thumb. he looked up to her and she smiled a little, intertwining their fingers. 

“why would you think it was them?” she asked him. 

he sighed, “i don’t know their motive yet, but i’ll find out,” he muttered, “i think we can agree on going back on with this,” he pointed at the book, “because i think i might’ve found something.”

she grinned, “ _ perfect. _ ”

  
  


**~*~**

**thursday, february 29.**

— the moon shone through the window of the library. 

she sat on the couch, a book in her hand. valtor was walking around the library, getting new books and putting the ones they had read away. he came back and sat down next to her on the couch, leaning back and taking a breath. she looked at him over the book.

“this is exhausting,” he muttered. 

“but worth it,” she replied and pointed at the list on a note that was laying on the small table between a few books. 

“true,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

she wanted to return to her book but the way he looked right now was  _ just a tad _ too distracting. he wore a black shirt, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. she had only come around to see his arms when she had been sleeping with him. he always wore his coat or the sleeves of his shirt hadn’t been rolled up. but now they were and she couldn’t complain at all. she could follow his veins up to his hands. he had taken his gloves off at some point that night, she couldn’t remember when. she liked that better, in fact. his hands were warm and soft, yet strong. the leather of his beloved gloves was erasing that. 

her eyes wandered to his neck. she saw he had opened the first button of his shirt, the collar hanging loose. his eyes were still closed, but that didn’t matter anyway as she was much more focused on his sharp jawline. and his cheekbones. 

he looked good,  _ so good _ . 

she knew they had just agreed to take it slow this time (so he could find out what the ancestral witches’ agenda had been) a couple of days ago but she could still appreciate his appearance. 

she tried to focus back on her book but it didn’t take long until he opened his eyes and moved. 

she sighed, “i don’t think i’m getting any more of this in my head tonight,” she muttered and put the book down. 

“reasonable,” he muttered, took the book from her and put it on the ground. 

she stretched, “what now?” she asked.

he shrugged, “i don’t know. are you tired?”

“no, not really,” she said. 

“me neither,” he muttered, got closer to her on the couch. she put her legs over his lap when he sat still next to her. he grinned and stroked her thigh with his thumb. 

he handed her a pillow from the other side of the couch and she put it behind her back for comfort. she leaned back and looked at him. there was still so much she wanted to know about him. he was fascinating. 

“when did you do your first spell?” she asked. 

he looked at her in surprise for a second but then took the idea. if they didn’t know what they were supposed to do, she could just as well find out more about him. it took him a moment to think.

“i was eleven, i think,” he replied, “you?”

she smirked when she realised she had been younger than he had been. 

“six,” she said. 

“that’s impressive,” he admitted, “did your parents teach you?” 

she shook her head instantly, “i’m an orphan. always have been.”

“sorry,” he whispered and it sounded genuine. 

“no, it’s fine,” she said and took his free hand, “i wouldn’t even want to know them. one of the women working there once told me they, whoever they are, left me on the threshold of the door. a day after i was born. in a basket with a blanket,” she explained. 

he stroked her leg and smiled slightly at her, “they don’t know what they missed,” he muttered. 

“honestly, i like my life better like this,” she shrugged.

“how did you learn magic then?” he asked.

she let go of his hand and sat up straight, took a breath and caressed his lower arm with her fingers. 

“when i was five, there was a new woman in the orphanage. she was really tall, looked a little scary to a child and she behaved… differently. one day, a few weeks after i turned six, she wanted to talk to me. i thought she was going to scold me because i stole a doll from a girl the other day. but, she ended up telling me i was special and that there was a lot of potential in me and she told me i can’t tell anyone about it. and then we met more often and she showed me my magic and spells and all. i can’t remember her name though. and when i was eight, darcy came to the orphanage because her parents died during the war in her home city. i didn’t really notice her at first but then she also came to those meetings i had with that woman and it became our secret and only we knew about it. and then she sent us to cloudtower when we were old enough. i suppose the ancestral witches have something to do with that, right? you would know that, wouldn’t you?” 

he nodded, “that sounds like it. i guess they knew you are their heir and that’s why they sent that woman to you. let me take a wild guess and i’d say it’s one of the immortal witches that pledged their lives to them, at least i wouldn’t be surprised,” he answered. 

“she also gave me a book about the history of witches when darcy and i left for cloudtower and that’s how i found out about the ancestral witches and i knew right there that we were their heirs,” she explained, “i still don’t know how no one ever noticed we were working with magic in that orphanage, it’s not like we weren’t gone for a few hours a day.” 

“it’s easy, she used a spell to stop time. either she did or one of the ancestral witches. it’s a complex spell but they can do it,” he told her and she raised her eyebrows in surprise. 

“that’s the most logical thing i ever heard,” she shrugged, “can you stop time?” 

he shook his head, “i wish i could. that’d make a lot of fights so much easier.” 

she smiled when he did and she held his hand. just sitting here with him and talking felt so right. she was enjoying this - listening to him talking, him listening when she was talking. she liked being close to him, the way he was stroking her legs, while still paying attention to what she was saying. 

“how did you grow up?” she asked him.

he looked at her in surprise for a second, “what?” he didn’t sound angry or offended, just a little surprised. 

“well, i just told you my entire story, now i wanna know about yours,” she said and smiled. 

“fair,” he grinned, sat up and got a little closer to her, “but don’t be too shocked.”

“i’ll try,” she answered and smiled.

“my parents were the king and queen of domino, a long time ago. even decades ago before domino was destroyed. so, my life was pretty okay, i suppose. my father just never really cared about me and the older i got, the less i saw my mother too. they just wanted me to learn and be the perfect prince. and at some point, i ran away. i wanted to hide somewhere in the garden and come back by sunset but that’s not how it turned out. the ancestral witches found me and they convinced me to come with them,” he said.

she looked at him with wide eyes, not saying a word. that was a lot.

first of all, he was royal. 

and he was the prince of  _ domino _ .

_ fucking domino _ .

and the ancestral witches took him with them. definitely a lot.

“they took me because they figured out the royal family of domino always possesses the dragonflame and… they needed it. so they took me, trained me until i knew every spell from every book they owned. and then they sent me to help in their wars and fights and everything else. and then they died in the battle of domino. or at least their bodies did, their soul… i don’t want to know where they are and how much influence they still have on this world,” he continued. 

she had listened to him, yes, but there was a thought in her mind that overshadowed this. 

“so you’re related to bloom?”

“god no,” he said and there was so much  _ disgust _ in his voice, “i don’t have children, i’m an only child. after my parents died, some of my distant cousins became king. and that was many decades ago before oritel was born. i’m not more related to her than anyone could be.” 

she grinned at his disgusted face and caressed his wrist with her thumb. thanks to his answer, that thought was now gone from her mind. but she noticed something else.

“so, bloom will never earn her enchantix. unless she’d save you and truth be told, she’d rather die than do that,” she stated and he smirked smugly. 

“and she doesn’t even know.”

“i think i once read that fairies, who can’t save someone from their home planet when they’re all dead, can earn their enchantix by willpower. i think it’s incomplete but they have their enchantix then,” she said. she had forgotten where she had read about that but she remembered it so well.

his smirk became wider, “faragonda, griffin and saladin also don’t know about me.”

“which means faragonda might’ve told bloom about this second option for gaining her enchantix but it doesn’t work because you still exist. she’s going to try to find out any way possible to get her enchantix but she never will,” she concluded and started smirking, “she’ll be frustrated and angry. angry people make mistakes.”

“exactly,” he grinned, “i could tell her but,” he shrugged, “she wouldn’t believe me. and the fun would be gone.” 

“you can tell her when she’s already magicless. or almost dead,” she suggested and smirked. 

he  _ hmm _ ed and grinned, “i like that idea.”

she sat up, leaned forward and kissed him. he put his free hand on her back while she sat down on his lap. 

after she parted, she leaned her head on his shoulder and rested. 

“do you want her dead?” he asked out of nowhere. 

she frowned and looked up to him, clearly confused. “what do you mean?”

“well, my plan was to take bloom’s magic and kill her. but this certainly isn’t  _ my _ plan anymore, it’s ours. and maybe you have something in mind for her,” he said, stroking her back. 

she grinned, “hmm, leaving her alive would be risky but… i think i’d have fun torturing her,” she muttered, caressing his cheek, brushing over his cheekbone. she’d be lying if she said she didn’t have ideas already.

“so i should leave her alive?” 

she nodded, “for now, yes,” she said and yawned, “now i’m tired.”

“good,” he muttered and kissed her again, just briefly this time, “do you want to go back to your room or come with me?” 

“well, darcy is out with riven and stormy’s... the dragon knows where, so i can come with you,” she smiled at him and he kissed her softly. 

  
  


**~*~**

**saturday, march 2.**

— she woke up to a hand caressing her cheek and a kiss on her forehead. she stretched and took a breath before opening her eyes to see him. 

valtor sat on the edge of the bed, already fully dressed in his coat. he smelled good, he probably just showered, judging by his slightly wet hair. he smiled at her. 

“good morning,” he muttered. 

she slowly sat up and smiled at him, leaning forward to kiss him softly. he smiled against her lips and brushed her hair behind her ear. 

“good morning,” she muttered after she parted from him. 

“did you sleep well?” he asked while she threw the blanket away and stood up, stretching her arms again. 

she nodded and yawned again, turned around to him. she walked to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling at him.

“i’ll freshen up,” she said, he nodded.

“i’ll start working, i’m in the office once you’re done,” he answered and she kissed him briefly, letting go of him before turning around to go into the bathroom, “you’re beautiful.”

she turned her head around to him, smiled at him before opening the bathroom door. she washed her face with water, quickly brushed her teeth and combed her hair. she bound her hair back into a ponytail and walked back into his bedroom again, opening  _ his  _ closet, taking one of his white shirts. she only wore a white top and light blue shorts for sleeping, now she wore his shirt over both of those things. 

while still closing the buttons, she walked through the door to the office. he was just standing in front of the book shelf next to the door. he looked at her and grinned, softly shaking his head. after putting the book down on the desk, he turned around to her and caressed her cheek.

“is that necessary?” he asked, but he sounded more amused than annoyed. 

“well, i like it,” she grinned and he kissed her, stroking down her back and—

“valtor? do you know where icy is? i can’t… find… her. oh.”

darcy stood in the door, staring at them for a moment. icy had parted as soon as she had realised darcy was approaching, but valtor’s hand still rested on her back. 

darcy crossed her arms and turned around but didn’t walk away.

“stormy, you owe me something,” she shouted, turning back around and leaning against the doorway, smirking  _ way too smugly _ , “i knew it.”

icy sighed and looked at valtor. he took his hand from her back and sat down on his chair at the desk. she followed him and sat down on the armrest. 

“how long have you known?” icy asked, resting one of her hands on his shoulder. 

darcy shrugged, “i figured all the time you two spent together for ‘planning’ would lead to something sooner or later.”

this time, valtor sighed. and stormy entered the room just a second later. 

“you were right?” stormy asked. 

darcy still smirked and nodded. icy sighed again. 

at least they didn’t have to pay attention to keeping  _ their _ secret anymore. 


	11. Chapter 11

**wednesday, march 13.**

— the moon didn’t shine this night. it was a new moon, the dark sky making all of the stars visible. 

icy stood between a few trees, only five metres away from lake roccaluce. she was looking to the peaks of alfea’s towers, which were only slightly visible behind the huge trees. she could see the school’s protection shield shimmering in a light turquoise colour. the longer she was looking at it, the more black dots appeared. those were the spelled witches from cloudtower. valtor had successfully sent them to attack alfea. she took a deep breath.

this was the start of a  _ really _ long night. 

she flinched and almost screamed when she felt a hand touching her shoulder. she jumped around, much to darcy’s amusement. 

“my god, what is it?” she asked, perhaps a little too rude but darcy had startled her. 

“we’re leaving now,” darcy answered and that  _ smug grin  _ she wore just a second ago was already gone. she knew this was serious and needed their full attention. 

icy nodded and wanted to turn back around but she noticed valtor materialising right behind darcy. he wore a blank expression on his face.

“is everything fine?” she asked him, startling darcy at least a little.

revenge was sweet. 

valtor nodded, walked up to her and created a white energy ball that quickly showed the zombie witches attacking alfea.

“good,” she muttered.

“like i said, we’re going now and i’ll prepare the separation spell,” darcy informed and valtor nodded quickly, destroying the energy ball. 

darcy teleported away, leaving them alone. icy turned around to him, looking up to him. 

“i can’t wait to see bloom going down,” she muttered. he looked at her and grinned, softly caressing her cheek. 

“me neither,” he started, “it’ll be exhausting but worth it,” he said.

she grinned and leaned in when he kissed her briefly. 

“do you have the water stars?” he asked and she knew he was just making sure everything was fine but she couldn’t help but to roll her eyes. 

“yes,  _ obviously _ ,” she said and showed him the golden brooch. he nodded but backed away a tad. 

“i should get into position. i’ll give you a sign,” he said.

“alright. be careful,” she said, he nodded but left her then.

she put the brooch back into her pocket, then took on her dark coat and threw the hood over her head. she couldn’t be seen by anyone and even though the night was already really dark, her hair was easy to spot in the middle of a black forest. she waited until valtor stopped, then hid between the trees and bushes in front of him. even hidden and covered up, she had to be careful so bloom wouldn’t notice her until she had to. 

it took a while. 

it took a damn long while until she finally saw orange sparkles and little flames dancing through the air. fucking finally. she was growing impatient. 

bloom landed  _ perfectly _ between her and valtor. facing valtor, icy looked at her back and her wings. she grabbed the brooch in her pocket hard while concentrating on their conversation. she couldn’t understand the beginning, thanks to a short period of wind that made the leaves rustle. 

“you’re not the only one full of surprises, valtor,” bloom yelled and it was the first thing icy could hear. 

valtor’s voice was a lot quieter than bloom’s but she still heard his words, still knew what he was going to answer, 

“surprise me, then.” 

apparently, that was what bloom needed to hear to start the fight. she attacked him with multiple fire balls, in such a  _ rapid _ tempo icy hadn’t expected to see from bloom. valtor shielded them, reflected them back at bloom. she jumped and flew out of the way and icy had to be careful or she would’ve been hit by one of them. she made a mental note to tell valtor to  _ not fucking shoot at her with reflected magic _ when this was over. 

bloom was fighting more offensively in this one, she noticed that very quickly. good for valtor, he didn’t need to put all of his energy in his defensive attacks. he did throw a few fire flies at her. they surprised her and she fell down on the ground, sliding on the hard ground for a few metres. 

bloom coughed thanks to the dirt she stirred up. she tried to get up, but fell down again. icy couldn’t really see well due to the dirt, but it looked as if she had sprained her ankle. 

she heard valtor chuckling and it gave her an inexplicably  _ good  _ feeling. 

“this is getting ridiculous, don’t you think? i bet it would be a lot more fun if you had your enchantix,” he said smugly.

_ shut the fuck up, you moron. _

hadn’t she said he shouldn’t talk to bloom about her enchantix until she was down? surely, she already looked defeated and  _ yes _ , she was down on the ground but this wasn’t over yet. it couldn’t be over yet, it was too early for that. 

“well i think you wouldn’t want me to have my enchantix,” bloom said back.

icy had to admit, she was right. they wouldn’t want that, even though it was lots of fun teasing her about it. 

“you will never earn your enchantix, don’t worry about me.” 

_ for fuck’s sake, valtor. _

“oh, if you knew,” bloom said.

her eyes widened when she heard those words. there was something off. she hadn’t said it loud enough for valtor to hear but as icy was right behind her, she could hear it. there weren’t a lot of reasons why she would say this without him noticing, except—

_ she knew. _

fuck. 

icy stood up and teleported herself in front of valtor as soon as bloom was standing, or rather flying, again. 

“enough,” she hissed. 

_ ‘what the hell are you doing?’ _ valtor asked her telepathically but she didn’t bother to answer. 

she attacked bloom with a simple spell, ice shards making their way toward the fairy quickly. bloom was pushed back but didn’t fall down. yet, it gave her enough time to turn her head to valtor, to  _ at least _ indicate that she knew what she was doing. 

bloom answered her sudden attack with a storm of little fiery balls. icy jumped off the ground to hover in the air, getting out of the way of bloom’s spell. valtor created another shield to save himself. she grabbed the brooch out of her pocket and attacked bloom with that one. she hit her. 

bloom hissed in pain, watching her lower arm bleeding. she suppressed focusing on the pain though, growling at her and wanting to throw another fireball at her.

but icy was faster, attacking again with the brooch. again. again. and again. chasing her around in a circle. 

she didn’t do this, didn’t put all of this effort into her attacks for nothing. she wasn’t angry at bloom -  _ yet _ -, she was simply trying to make this fight come to an end. 

valtor hadn’t heard what bloom had said and with all the respect she had for him, she doubted he understood what was going on right now. if she had to guess, he was trying to figure it out. 

bloom knew valtor was the only person alive originating from domino other than her. she knew he was her only chance to ever earn her enchantix. there were two options she could follow in this fight and as of now, icy didn’t know which one it was. 

number one was she was trying to have someone attacking him deadly, then saving him. 

the idea itself made perfect sense - after all, this was how a fairy earned her enchantix. there was just the part of  _ bloom saving valtor _ . would she do that? would she ever swallow  _ all _ of her pride to save the man who she blamed for killing her parents and helping in devastating her planet. their planet, actually. would she? icy didn’t know. spontaneously, she would’ve said  _ no _ but in the past, there had been plenty of times when bloom had surprised her with her decisions. 

option number two was to kill valtor.

the idea was easier, shorter, more obvious. but the realisation was harder. killing valtor wasn’t easy. he was intelligent and powerful. she could only imagine how many wars and fights he had survived in his entire life. he could save himself. and bloom would need a hell lot of energy to even come close to killing him. but she could still be trying it right now. she could be that reckless, it wouldn’t be the first time ever. 

she was still chasing bloom with the water star’s power inside the brooch. she hid behind a tree but icy attacked another time nonetheless. the branches fell down on the ground with a loud noise and a lot of dirt swirled up in the air. bloom flew away but due to the dirt, icy couldn’t follow her with her eyes. 

“ _ oh. _ ”

she turned around to valtor as soon as she heard his voice. and now she was angry at bloom. 

despite being even smaller than valtor as icy herself was, bloom held him tightly in a hard grip. she held her left hand in front of his neck, a very tiny but intense flame burning in it. icy frowned, trying to figure out why valtor wouldn’t push her away when she was just threatening him with a spell. 

unless it wasn’t  _ just _ a spell. 

“i wouldn’t do this if i were you,” valtor said but bloom only laughed.

“you would.”

she was right. she didn’t say that, though. 

“i would be careful who you’re attacking, icy. i’m sure you wouldn’t want him dead in the middle of a fight,” bloom said and grinned tauntingly. 

_ ‘why is she so sure of herself?’ _ she asked valtor telepathically. she didn’t want to risk bloom hearing that. 

_ ‘it’s her essence. the only thing that can destroy me.’ _

_ ‘shit.’  _

this was definitely not good and certainly not something they had talked about. she didn’t know what to do now. if she made one wrong move, if she said the wrong thing, bloom could destroy him,  _ erasing him from existence,  _ and she couldn’t even help him.

she had to think of something. quickly. she couldn’t risk him being in danger for any longer. 

there were not many things she could do to save him right now. 

she could talk to bloom to leave him the fuck alone. although that could be very dangerous. just one simple thing and she would risk his life. 

she could attack her, which would be the absolute worst thing she could do right now. this would make her kill him within a second. 

that was all she could think of. but the risk of him getting hurt was way too high in both options. yet, she didn’t think she could do anything else at all. 

except maybe—

now she had an idea.

she had thought about attacking bloom  _ offensively _ which would directly result in her hurting valtor. but she hadn’t thought about doing something in  _ defense _ yet. something sneaky, something bloom wouldn’t notice soon enough. 

_ ‘i have a plan, stay still.’ _ she told him. 

she concentrated her powers on the flame burning in bloom’s hand. 

she certainly wasn’t able to extinguish the essence of the dragon flame but she could freeze it for a moment. a moment valtor could use to escape. 

it was complicated to concentrate her magic on such a powerful energy source but eventually, she was able to. valtor grinned when he noticed it and once she froze it, he pushed his elbow into bloom’s stomach and teleported next to her. 

bloom still held her frozen essence in her hand and fell down on the ground, gasping for air. a welcomed side effect, apparently. 

the ice slowly melted around the fire when she looked up to valtor and grinned at him. he didn’t say something but the way he looked at her was enough for her to know what he was thinking. he grabbed her hand and squeezed it for a moment, let go of it when there was a sudden shift of energy they both felt. 

it wasn’t bloom. she was still kneeling on the ground, holding her head with her hands and groaning in pain. icy looked up to the dark sky and saw what caused this  _ energy shift _ . 

layla, musa and flora were flying over the treetops, musa shooting down an energy ball. 

what the hell? 

wasn’t stormy supposed to keep them busy?

“where’s stormy?” she hissed between gritted teeth while watching them flying down toward them. 

“well, you tell me when you send a  _ weak _ and  _ impulsive _ witch after three strong enchantix fairies,” layla answered and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

_ how dare she? _

“and how did you get through the confusion spell? it was supposed to keep you all apart,” valtor said next. although she couldn’t see his face right now, she felt the anger rising inside of him. she would’ve reached for his hand if there weren’t four fairies around them.

“sounds like stella and tecna are also very successful against darcy,” musa said. 

their comments triggered a deeply hidden rage inside of her that she felt the need to express and let out now. she took the brooch and attacked layla, who risked a quick glance to the side before redirecting the water star’s energy with a shield she created together with musa. 

the spell was moving straight to valtor. 

_ fuck. _

icy wanted to stop the spell but before she could do that, bloom jumped between the spell and valtor, letting the energy of the water stars hit her. she glowed in a camin red light and icy felt as if she was living in slow-motion. 

flora flew to layla and musa - she hadn’t even noticed she had been gone to help bloom -, valtor got out of the way and stood next to her on the other side. the energy hit bloom and she slowly fell down,  _ once again _ . 

she hit the ground and rolled over it. icy heard layla and the others gasping. she could only stare at bloom and she knew that valtor did the same thing. 

“you knew,” he whispered, only audible for her. 

“ _ she _ knew,” she replied, equally quiet. 

it was twenty-two seconds. she had counted. twenty-two tense seconds they all stared at bloom, doing nothing but that. 

then she rose, glowing in a bright orange. the light was so bright, icy turned around and narrowed her eyes. she looked up to valtor, who mouthed a  _ shit _ . she nodded and once the light stopped, she turned back around, seeing bloom in a light blue dress with big, dark blue wings. her enchantix. 

they were  _ fucked _ . 

for once in their lives, layla and the others didn’t spend a moment admiring and congratulating bloom for her enchantix, they turned around to them. ambition and determination in their eyes. 

bloom shot a spell she called  _ dragon breath _ at them. it was actually just a ray of fire. valtor created a protection shield around the both of them. 

“use the brooch,” he whispered into her ear. 

“give me backup.” 

“always.”

she flew around them, valtor attacking them. 

flora was watching her carefully but valtor shot a fireball at her. icy attacked bloom with the water stars. all of their energy. the highest amount of rare, ancient and deadly energy she could use. it would directly hit bloom’s chest. 

but it didn’t. because she used her  _ damned _ fairy dust. 

the sparkles of the water stars that were actually in a deep and dark colour of red turned golden, redirecting at her. 

_ shit. _

she was too close to be able to move out of the way. those sparkles were  _ deadly. _

this couldn’t be the end, could it? 

she closed her eyes, already hoping it wouldn’t be as painful as she imagined. 

but nothing ever came. this wasn’t the end. this wasn’t  _ her _ end. 

she opened her eyes again, scanning her surrounding to find out what was stopping the spell. 

it wasn’t bloom, she was looking angrily at valtor—

_ valtor. _

he had a pained and focused expression on his face while the sparkles turned grey. and then they vanished into thin air. 

he was using the spell. that fucking spell she had told him not to use. 

she landed next to him, touching his shoulder. 

looking back, it was a stupid move. she didn’t pay attention to the fairies and neither did valtor. 

bloom hit his chest with a fire sphere. 

he groaned and sank to his knees while the anger in her rose. 

she hurt him.

she made sure valtor wasn’t about to die with a glance, then she turned around to bloom. she narrowed her eyes and took a deep,  _ angered _ breath. an icicle formed in her hand. sharper than a knife and  _ most certainly _ more  _ deadly  _ than that. now, she wanted to see her bleed out. she wanted to push that icicle through the left side of her chest, looking into her eyes as they filled with pain and then emptied as life left them. she wanted to wear her blood on her hands to show her friends, to show the entire magical dimension that she had killed her. she would be—

she felt a warm hand around hers. it pulled her out of her thoughts and made her look down on her side. valtor held it softly while looking at her with pained eyes. 

“not today,” he whispered. he sounded so weak and in pain. 

she let the icicle disappear, looked back to bloom. 

“this is not over,” she said, taking valtor’s hand and teleporting the two of them away. back to cloud tower. 

he groaned, sitting down on a chair and leaning back. she looked at him, seeing the huge area of burnt skin on his chest. 

_ bloom would die for this. _

“i’m stupid,” he muttered while she was helping him open his shirt. 

she shook her head, “no, you aren’t,” she answered, “you couldn’t have known bloom knew about the enchantix thing. i should’ve told you.” 

she put both of her hands on his chest, carefully using her magic to cool his wound. 

this time, he shook his head, “i’m not talking about that,” he started, “i shouldn’t have used  _ the spell. _ ” 

“you saved my life,” she said and stroked over his cheek. 

he stayed silent and swallowed, as if there was something he didn’t want to tell her. she left his wound when she noticed it was cooling for now. 

“what is it?” she asked quietly. 

he took a deep breath, “i… can’t use my magic,” he said. 

she looked at him without saying a word. she wanted to say she had told him so but it would be wrong. he had done it to save her life and it had been his decision. instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head on his. 

“we lost,” he muttered.

“i know.” 

“we need to get out of here. they know we’re hurt now, they’ll come here to take back cloud tower,” he said. icy let go of him and caressed his temple with her thumb. 

“i’ll get our stuff. i know where to go, trust me,” she muttered.

he smiled weakly at her and nodded, kissing her softly. 

they had lost today, yes.

but she was determined to not fail another time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry :)


	12. Chapter 12

**friday, march 22.**

— one and a half weeks had passed.

icy sat next to valtor, who was reading a book to distract himself from his pain and the lack of his magic. luckily, darcy had found out his magic was  _ only _ blocked. what caused the blockade was unknown though. valtor had said himself that he could feel the essence of his magic when he was focusing hard, yet he couldn’t even do a simple spell.

he said he was fine and that it didn’t bother him too much since he was trying to find out about the blockade but she could clearly see he was lying. and she couldn’t blame him. if she was him, she’d be lying too. 

stormy walked into the room with a bowl of cereal in her hands, moving a spoonful to her mouth. she sat down on the armchair opposite them, peacefully eating her cereal, despite knowing it was almost eleven-thirty at night. she had a broken arm and a few wounds on her body. icy had felt a different kind of anger when she had found her and darcy close to cloud tower. darcy had broken her left leg thanks to falling several metres down because stella had aimed at her with a powerful spell. they were all hurt. valtor, stormy and darcy. everyone was hurt except for her. she had left the fight with only a few scratches. 

she was angry at everyone who had hurt them, yes, but she also knew this wasn’t getting her anywhere now. they couldn’t attack until they were all healthy again. in fact, they couldn’t attack until valtor had his magic back. without the dragon flame, they were lost. they needed his ability to defeat bloom and after everything that happened, she longed to not only defeat but to destroy bloom  _ completely _ . 

she hadn’t made up her mind what she wanted to do - after all, there were other things she had to worry about before she could think about that. they had lost valtor’s magic, they had lost the fight, they had lost plenty of their spells. they had lost cloud tower. 

it had been an instinct to call darko. she knew he owned an insane amount of fancy mansions all around the dimension. and she knew they had to go somewhere hidden, somewhere no one would show up. somewhere no one thought about them. 

he had given them a mansion in the deep woods of linphea. somewhere only his insanely rich clients spent their summer vacations. it wasn’t the best idea to hide on the planet of one of the winx but they had no other choice. and no one would think they were here, in a huge, luxury mansion in the middle of a forest. 

he had said he owed her something for leaving her alone for four months. now they were able to stay here until they left. 

of course, he knew they were fighting the winx. of course he knew about everything that happened, and he knew about valtor but he didn’t care about all of that. the only thing he cared about was her. 

he should get an award for being precious and not letting her down when it was obvious she’d dump him again and again. she liked to have fun with him but he was boring. he only had his money.

and she had valtor now. even though he also didn’t have a lot right now, she didn’t want to and definitely  _ couldn’t _ leave him. 

it was obvious to her by now that she was in love with him.

she wasn’t stupid, she just didn’t like feelings. 

she heard valtor shutting his book and then felt his hand on hers. she looked at him.

“i’m tired, i’m going to bed,” he muttered.

she nodded, “i’m coming with you.” 

he smiled weakly and stood up, held his hand for her to reach to help her stand up. she noticed but chose to ignore stormy’s eye roll at their behaviour. she’d grow up, eventually. 

she followed valtor through the long and big hall, upstairs - there was only one bedroom on the ground floor and as she wasn’t supposed to walk a lot, they had given that one to darcy. he opened the door of their bedroom and closed it behind him after she had entered.

she waited for him to sit down on the bed with her arms crossed. he knew very well she wanted to cool his wound before he went to bed. 

he sat down and looked up to her, then sighed heavily before opening the buttons of his black shirt. 

she was mentally counting down the seconds until he’d say  _ it _ .

“do we have to?” he asked. 

she sighed herself, “for the tenth time,  _ yes _ , we, no,  _ you _ have to,” she said, “you have a severe burn on your chest, which  _ by the way _ was caused by the dragon flame. you don’t want to know what a pain in the neck this wound can be if you don’t do anything about it.”

he didn’t seem happy with her reply but he obliged.  _ what else was he supposed to do anyway _ ?

he put his shirt on the bed behind him once he had undressed. she came closer to him, carefully laid her hands on the burnt skin and let her magic cool it. he shifted and hissed a little but she was already going as gently as possible. she leaned her forehead against his and took a deep breath. 

she let go and kissed his temple. he stayed silent and sat still for a moment. she didn’t say a thing while sitting down next to him, she could only imagine what was going through his mind. losing one’s magic, even if it was just temporarily, being hurt and losing was a lot. 

he had been talking less since it happened. and when he was talking, it was mostly to her. usually at night, when they were almost asleep. 

he sighed again, turning around and lying down on the bed. she took off the sweater she was wearing, revealing her pastel blue top and did the same as him. 

she lied on the side opposite to his wound as she was afraid to accidentally hurt him at night. he had said it didn’t matter as he was waking up several times at night because of the pain anyway but she didn’t want to be the cause of his pain. 

she leaned her head on his shoulder, her hand caressing the area between his other shoulder and collar bone. he wrapped his arm around her, resting his hand on her hip. 

“i was thinking about training with a sword while i don’t have my magic,” he muttered. 

“do you know how to use one?” she asked curiously.

“well, i…” he started and she chuckled quietly, “i did, a few decades ago,” he said and smiled at her. 

she shrugged, “i mean, at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you kill bloom by destroying her essence or because you stab her.” 

“exactly,” he muttered, “did you ever use one?”

she snorted, “if a toy one out of foam counts, then yes. we dressed up as pirates in the orphanage once. i hit a boy with that sword and he ran to one of the ladies, crying like a baby, and told her i cut off his arm with that and that he’d die,” she told him in a dead tone. 

he chuckled and it felt good to hear him laughing after the rough week they had. 

“did she punish you?” he asked, his voice sounding amused. 

“not really,” she replied, “she did scold me not to punch the younger children. especially not on purpose. even when we’re playing.” 

“maybe i can show you how to use one, if you want to,” he suggested. 

she tilted her head so he could see her face and looked him dead in the eye, “if you’re able to use one yourself…  _ again. _ ”

he looked offended for a second, rolled his eyes but grinned then. he leaned down to kiss her softly. 

“keep on dreaming,” he teased.

**~*~**

**monday, april 1.**

— it was four-fifteen in the morning when she woke up. 

she didn’t have a nightmare, she hadn’t dreamt at all, in fact, she just woke up. the sun hadn’t even risen when she looked out of the window. yet, she felt awake. she would just get up, have a shower and read a book until valtor woke up.  _ speaking of him _ .

she turned around, only to notice he wasn’t lying next to her anymore. the side of the bed he used was already cold, meaning he had been gone for a while. his blanket laid chaotically half on the ground, half on the bed. she sighed and slowly got up. 

she opened the wardrobe, getting dressed in something else than her pyjamas. a white, knitted turtleneck pullover and light blue shorts. it wasn’t cold outside, she just wanted some comfort. she tied her hair up and looked out of the window.

of course, she should’ve guessed it. 

she saw valtor training outside, a sword in his hand. he cut off the head of a wooden figure she made a few days ago for his training. she grinned but shook her head. she didn’t quite understand why he was training at four in the morning yet but she’d find out. 

she walked downstairs, then outside into the garden behind the mansion. she leaned against the white house wall behind valtor and watched him. she crossed her arms in front of her chest. 

he held the sword in his right hand, taking a breath from his last attack. he only wore a dark blue shirt and a black trouser, his coat lying on the ground close to him. he had rolled up his sleeves, exposing his strong arms. his tensed hand had a firm grip around the handle of the sword. she watched as he raised the sword, took a strong and confident step forward and cut the next wooden figure into half. 

“that one looked good,” she said, loud enough for him to hear but not loud enough so she’d accidentally wake her sisters. 

he turned around to her, stared at her for a second before grinning and walking toward her. his whole body was so tensed, his muscles were clearly visible. if he always looked like this when he was training, she’d consider watching him a lot more. 

“did i wake you?” he asked when he stood in front of her, stroking her cheek. 

she shook her head, “why are you training? it’s an odd time, even for you.” 

he grinned, “i woke up half an hour ago and couldn’t go back to sleep. i was motivated to do some training” he answered and shrugged. 

she nodded and looked down to the sword, softly took the handle out of his hand. it felt warm thanks to his hand. she slowly and carefully raised it, looking at her reflection in the silver blade. 

“do you want to try it?” he asked while watching her observing the sword. 

“if you show me how,” she muttered, not taking her eyes off the sword. 

he nodded, “sure.”

she gave him the sword back and used her magic to repair the wooden figures. she reached for the sword and put it in her left hand. 

“try to cut its head off,” he started, “first you grab the handle with both of your hands and raise it a little. like this.”

he stood behind her, put his hands around hers and helped her move the sword up. she really wished she could actually concentrate on the sword instead of his warm breath on her neck. or his hands around hers. 

“and now you swing it up and aim at the neck,” his mouth was right next to her ear, meaning he didn’t talk very loud. there was something about his voice in that moment she couldn’t stop thinking about. 

he guided her arms up and then down, the swinging motion he just described. 

“now try it yourself,” he muttered and kissed her on the cheek, then let go of her hands and took a step away. 

she did what he had just told her - even though it hadn’t been her main focus to listen to him as he had distracted her. she cut off… the very top of the head. better than nothing. she lowered the sword and picked up the little piece of wood. 

“not a bad first try,” he said and she genuinely couldn’t tell if he was mocking her or if he was telling the truth. 

“i think i’ll stick to my magic,” she said and handed him the sword back. 

he took it and tilted his head, “what weapon would you use if you didn’t have your magic?” he asked. and she had to admit, it was a really good question. she hadn’t really thought about that since she had learned how to make a spell. 

she shrugged, “i know how to use a bow but that’s all.” 

he raised his eyebrows, seeming genuinely interested, “really?”

“i took some archery lessons as a child. the coach was the husband of one of the ladies at the orphanage and he did it for free,” she shrugged. 

“you surprise me over and over again,” he said, “can you show me?”

“i don’t have a bow.”  
  
“your little friend apparently has a variety of weapons in the shed,” his tone was dry and unimpressed. 

yeah, that sounded a lot like darko. 

“i’ll get you one,” he said, kissed her forehead and left her for a moment. he came back with a bow and a few arrows. 

he handed it to her and she got into position, drew the bow, aimed at what was left of the head of the wooden figure. she shot. and she struck  _ perfectly _ . 

“impressive,” he commented, actually sounding impressed. 

“you want to try it?” she challenged. 

he contemplated for a moment, then reached his hand out for the bow. he moved to the spot she just stood at. 

getting the idea about now distracting  _ him _ , she moved behind him, making sure her breath touched the back of his neck. 

“you draw it once you hold the arrow like this,” she used his hands with her own around them, showing him exactly how she was describing it. “once you draw it, you close one eye and focus on your aim,” she muttered close to his ear. 

“all right.”

“and then you shoot,” she said, slowly moving her hand down his arm before taking a step back. “do it.”

he shot. and he missed majorly. due to the dim light, she couldn’t see where the arrow striuck but it certainly wasn’t the figure. 

“that didn’t go too well,” he muttered under his breath. 

“well, you did hold the bow wrong,” she noticed, walked back to him and moved her hands over his arm before she even reached the bow. “it needs to be straight,” she said, moving his hands and arm the way it needed to be. 

“like that?” he asked.

“yes,” she said, making sure he would feel her breath on his skin, “okay, maybe you should also pay attention that your posture is straight,” she added, putting one hand on his back, the other one on the unhurt side of his chest and put him into a straight position. she moved both of her hands over the area right before leaving him again. 

“icy,” he whispered. there was a luring tone in his voice. 

“what?”

he shot (and missed again), put the bow down and turned around to her, putting a hand on her cheek, then bending down to kiss her. she had to grin. she had been able to distract him enough, to tease him enough. 

she smirked at him when they parted for a moment. he looked at her, half-smirked and kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her waist. she moved her hands up his chest, stopping at his neck. she hooked her fingers up into the collar of his shirt while she felt his warm hands moving up her back, under her pullover. 

she felt her heart stopping for a split second and then beating a lot faster when he stroked over her hips down her stomach with both of his thumbs. out of the corner of her eye, she saw the sun slowly rising behind the trees when he parted for a second to catch his breath. she was breathing heavier too and looked him deep in the eye before kissing him again. 

this time, she moved her hands to the first button of his shirt, opening it. then the next one, and the next one. she broke the kiss to open the last two buttons, moved her hands over his skin under the soft fabric and raised her head again, leaning into his kiss. his skin felt so, so warm. stroking up his abs, she noticed his muscles were still tense. she kissed over his jawline, causing him to gasp. 

“maybe we should take this inside,” he whispered breathless.

she  _ hmm _ ed and let go of him, reached for his hand and pulled him with her. they stopped in the main hall when he quickly pushed her against the fine white wall to kiss her. she kissed him back until she remembered darcy slept in one of the rooms. she broke the kiss, grinned at him and took his hand again, taking him with her. 

darcy’s door was locked but she could see that stormy was sleeping like a baby in the salon. what else would she do?

he lifted her up on his hips when they reached the stairs. she wasn’t really happy with him carrying her around when he was still hurting from his wound, but he didn’t give any sign of pain. plus she was able to continue kissing him like this. 

he let her down as soon as they reached the first floor, pushing her into the direction of their bedroom while kissing. 

her heart beat  _ way too fast _ once he opened the door and dragged her into the room. she was able to lock the door magically before her focus was back on his hands already opening her bra underneath her pullover. he laid her down on the bed, moving up to kiss her. 

she moved her hands down his neck, under his shirt, slowly moving the fabric down his shoulders and his arms. he parted for a second and took his shirt off, throwing it out of the bed. he started to kiss down her neck, moving his hands to undress her pullover. she raised her head and took off her bra herself while he threw the piece of cloth away. 

he trailed kisses down her neck, over her collar bones, to her breasts. she let go of a moan while brushing through his hair and over his head. he kissed her now bare upper body, causing her to shift slightly and moan quietly. 

he raised his head again, kissing her deeply while she noticed his hands becoming busy on the bow of her shorts. he opened it quickly and pulled them down, roaming her body with both hands once he was done. 

she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer to her, kissing him even deeper. one of his hands stroked down her stomach, over her hip and ass to her leg, pushing it up in an angle. despite her arms around his neck, he went back to kissing her neck, down her breasts and this time over her stomach, lower and lower. 

she gasped when he kissed her skin just a bit above her underwear. whatever he was about to do, he should better go on or she’d consider him an aim for her icicles. 

fortunately for the both of them, he did go on by slowly getting rid of her underwear. 

she moaned. 

**•••**

— she cuddled closer to him, her chin now resting on top of his head. 

his hand slowly stroked over her thigh, his fingers sometimes sliding down to her inner thigh, making her shiver slightly. she smiled and looked at him, one of her hands stroking his cheek softly. he looked at her and kissed her. 

his free hand found hers and he brushed over the top of her hand with his thumb. as soon as he parted from her, she kissed his forehead and pressed hers against his head. it felt so good to be so close to him, to rest with him. she risked a glance to the clock on her nightstand. it was half past six in the morning. they had spent over an hour in bed and she couldn’t feel better. 

when she looked at him again, his eyes were closed, his head snuggled in the space between her shoulder and head. the movement of his hand had stopped, it was now resting on her thigh. 

she smiled a little and kissed him on the head. she knew he would never want to hear it, but he did look adorable and peaceful when he was sleeping. and he needed to rest, after everything that had happened in the last few weeks. 

she knew he had been lying to her earlier. he hadn’t been asleep and then randomly woke up at three in the morning. he hadn’t been sleeping at all. maybe an hour at most. and he had been training to become exhausted enough to go to sleep. good to know she was more successful in making him exhausted than his training did. 

she decided to close her eyes too, falling asleep as well. after all, it had been an exhausting morning and it wasn’t even seven o’clock. plus, she was way too comfortable now not to. 

**•••**

— she woke up ten minutes before nine in the morning. 

valtor still lied next to her, deeply asleep. she watched him for a moment and brushed through his hair. 

it was so refreshing to see him calm and peaceful. he had been so eager to focus on his powers, on a second plan, on getting healthy again that he forgot how to rest properly. the wound on his chest was still present, still there. she hated it. she hated to see him hurt. and she knew he hated it too. 

he also hated how this wound was so big, it almost covered half his chest. she didn’t mind, he was beautiful with and without it. but she always felt her anger rising inside whenever she saw it. he was hurt because of bloom. it was all her fault and she swore, if she ever saw her again, she’d pay dearly for this. 

she gave him a soft kiss on the temple, then stood up and stretched. she searched for her underwear and his shirt in the pile of clothes they had left behind and took on both. she walked over to the mirror and checked herself in it. her eyes still looked sleepy but her skin was glowing. she fixed her  _ slightly messed up _ hair and bound it into a loose bun. 

“you’re beautiful,” he muttered and she flinched, then turned around to him. 

he looked at her from the bed, still covered in his white blanket. he smiled a little, causing her to do the same. she went to the bed and climbed onto him, sitting down on his lap. his hands stroked down her back and eventually ended up on her hips. 

“you’re awake,” she stated quietly. 

he nodded, “i guess that nap was needed,” he muttered and she leaned down to kiss him. 

she closed her eyes and frowned. whatever his mouth was able to do should be considered illegal by this point. or his hands. or everything else about him for that matter. 

“you know, it’s only nine,” she whispered, “we could just stay in bed for a while longer.” 

she just didn’t want to leave the room with him yet. obviously, she knew they had to eventually but unless they really, really  _ had to _ , they could just stay here. 

“do you have something in mind?” he asked and grinned. she had to admit, he knew her pretty well by now. 

she grinned, “well, you did spoil me so maybe i can get back at you for that,” she muttered and moved her hands over his sides, down the blanket. 

he put a hand on her cheek and pulled her down, kissing her again. she was just starting to move down, when they had to part as a knock sounded on the door. she sighed and rolled her eyes.

“icy? valtor? darcy’s making pancakes, do you want some?”

_ for fuck’s sake, stormy. any time but not now. _

she looked at valtor with raised eyebrows. he sighed, stroked over her thigh and answered.

“yes, we’re coming down in a moment,” he said, looking at her and caressing her cheek.

“alright,” stormy answered and they both waited until her footsteps weren’t audible anymore. 

“seems like we have to wait until tonight,” he muttered and sat up, wrapped his arms around her waist. 

she raised an eyebrow, “if you can wait that long,” she said challengingly.

he gave her a dead look and she smirked, pulled him close to her by the neck and kissed him. 


	13. Chapter 13

**saturday, april 13.**

— he stood on the balcony of their bedroom. 

the sun had set just a few minutes ago, still leaving the sky in a purplish colour. he looked past the white ceiling, watching the clouds in the sky. from the looks of them, it was about to rain any minute.

there was never as much energy in the air like when it was about to rain. one of the first things the ancestral witches had taught him. even right now, he could feel it. he had always been able to feel it. but it didn’t help him right now. 

he couldn’t use the energy he felt for anything. it was frustrating. 

he didn’t regret using the spell that had caused his loss of magic. not at all. if he wouldn’t have done it, icy wouldn’t be here now. 

and in that case there wouldn’t have been a way he would forgive himself. 

she meant so much to him. 

but it was still so incredibly frustrating. he wanted to do one spell,  _ one simple spell _ . apparently though, that was already too much he was asking for. 

he didn’t even have a fucking idea where to start. 

sure, he had been reading plenty of those  _ how to get one’s magic back after an accident _ books for magic beginners but they weren’t helping at all. of course, he had tried to memorise what the witches had taught him when they had introduced him to magic. but either he wasn’t able to remember because it was such a long time ago or their approaches hadn’t worked. 

it was getting ridiculous. he couldn’t even create a simple, tiny flame on his palm. 

how was he supposed to defeat bloom when he couldn’t even do something so…  _ basic _ ?

yes, he had been training with his sword a lot in the last couple of weeks. and yes, it had been helpful - both for his physical form and his magicless attacks. but he knew that stabbing her with his sword wouldn’t be enough. there were ancient spells and rituals on how to bring a dead heir of the dragon flame back. he had to extinguish her essence in order to  _ really _ kill her. 

he felt his own essence inside of him, yes, but he couldn’t fucking do anything with it. and it mocked him like nothing else had mocked him before in his entire life. 

he got pulled out of his thoughts when he felt cold hands on his back and arm. icy had come out of the shower, her hair still wet, she was wearing a white bathrobe. for a second he wanted to ask her if she wasn’t freezing or getting a cold in the end but then he remembered she  _ wouldn’t _ . he had to smile a little. 

“what were you thinking about?” she asked quietly, brushing through his hair. 

he turned around to her. he had noticed her hair was shining in a silvery colour when it was wet. it looked beautiful when the sky’s violet colour reflected on it. her eyes were also lightened by the purple. 

“just the ordinary,” he muttered, sitting down on the chair in the corner of the balcony. she sat on his lap, smiling at him. 

they stayed silent for a while. she watched the sky slowly turning dark and the stars starting to shine while he watched her. her hair was loose, drying through the air. although she had been showering, she felt only a tad warmer. her features seemed to be softer when peacefully watching something. he looked down to her neck, noticing all the tiny and very light freckles she had around her collar bones. he hadn’t even seen them until a week ago. she had said she hated them sometimes but he found them beautiful on her. halfway covered by her bathrobe, he could see a dark red spot below her collar bone. he grinned, knowing this had been his fault. she shouldn’t be the one to complain though, she had covered his entire uninjured portion of his chest. 

“are you making any progress with your magic?” she asked.

he shook his head, “not at all,” he muttered, “i don’t know if i’m doing something wrong or anything but nothing is working,”

she looked at him in silence for a moment. 

“maybe it doesn’t work because you’ve been trying it alone? i mean, did any of us learn magic on our own?”

she had a point. 

“can you help me?” he asked quietly, feeling a little embarrassed he was asking someone else for help. but then again he knew he was safe with her and she wouldn’t laugh at him. 

she smiled, turned around so she could face him and wrapped her hands around his wrists. 

“concentrate on your essence. it’s going through your veins, to your hands, ending underneath your palms,” she said.

he closed his eyes and did exactly what she told him. at first, he didn’t feel anything. nothing. absolutely nothing, just… emptiness. but the longer she held his wrists and he concentrated, he felt  _ something _ . it wasn’t a lot but he felt something rushing the way up to his hands—

and when he opened his eyes again, a little fire was burning above the palm of his hand. he felt himself smiling and when he looked up to her, she smiled too. 

he closed his palm and she let go of his wrists. 

_ he tried again _ . 

and it worked  _ again _ . another fire burning in his hand. 

he tried to fuel it with more energy to make it bigger - and he was successful. he took some energy away and it became smaller again. 

“you’re back,” she muttered and smiled.

he smiled and pulled her down to him, kissing her softly. 

_ i love you _ . 

the thought came as a surprise. he knew he had been  _ in love _ with her for quite some time now but this was something he had never felt before. even when he had been with griffin for a short period of time in the past, he had never felt this so  _ intense _ . 

he didn’t say it, though. he knew now was not the right time yet. he didn’t know how she would react to this yet. obviously, she liked him too and if he had to take a guess after all the time they had spent together, he would say that she was equally in love with him as he was with her. 

but he didn’t know if she wanted to hear that  _ already _ . he’d wait a little. 

right now, everything was still so uncertain. they hadn’t won yet, they were still in danger and they would risk their lives again once they started their  _ second try _ . 

he’d wait until they had won. 

she parted from him, smirked and slowly brushed over his lips. 

he decided he’d enjoy the time he had with her now, especially with knowing how he felt.

because he had to admit, feeling this for  _ her _ felt absolutely incredible. 

he stood up, lifted her up while she was kissing him and carried her inside, to their bed.

**~*~**

**tuesday, april 30.**

— she stretched her arms when walking into the salon. 

valtor sat alone, reading a book on the huge white lounge. although he was alone, there were  _ two _ plates and cups on the table. one of the plates was empty, on the other one was a piece of bread and a small pancake. 

“good morning,” he greeted her before she could even say something. 

he was in a way better mood since he had found his magical abilities again. she liked him a lot better like this. 

“morning,” she yawned and sat down next to him. 

“i saved you one of darcy’s pancakes and made you tea,” he said and she had to both smile and roll her eyes. he didn’t have to, he knew that.

“where are they anyway?” she asked. 

it was oddly quiet for half past ten in the morning. normally, darcy was making the dishes by this point or stormy was watching and laughing about one of those ridiculous and terribly acted soaps that all played in magix city. 

“they’re getting food,” he replied and handed her the plate. 

she didn’t answer, just nodded and took a bite of her bread. 

“what are you doing?” she asked once she had swallowed. 

“actually, i was just waiting for you to wake up. i think i finally found out why we had those nightmares a couple of months ago,” he said. she raised her eyebrows to show him to continue, as she didn’t want to speak with a mouthful of bread.

“i remembered they once let me have a lot of nightmares when i wanted to run back home when i was fourteen. they let that happen until i obliged and stayed with them.”

“but you didn’t run away from me. and i didn’t run away from you,” she said after she had swallowed the last bit of her bread. 

“exactly, that was the point i didn’t understand the entire time. there’s two possibilites. one being they didn’t want to scare us away from each other but to show us what could happen if we leave. or, second option, they tried to separate us for a reason i don’t know yet but then noticed it’s not working,” he explained. 

“i like the first option better,” she muttered. 

he nodded, “me too. but the second one doesn’t leave me either—”

“you don’t have to worry about not finding it out. i mean, we got over it, right? it doesn’t matter anymore. once we’ve won, the three of them should shut it anyway because we were able to do what they couldn’t,” she told him, putting the now empty plate back on the table. 

he smiled a little and kissed her, “maybe you’re right.” 

she grinned, leaned her head on his shoulder. he continued reading while she enjoyed his hand stroking over her back. 

a loud groan interrupted their peace. stormy, still in a fairy-like disguise, held the handle of a shopping bag in her hands. she sighed and carried the - apparently very heavy - bags into the kitchen. 

“you’re back,” icy said, watching darcy bringing another bag, seemingly lighter, into the kitchen. 

“yeah, finally,” stormy said and fell down on the other couch. 

darcy used a spell to make all of the food find its place in the kitchen on its own and sat down next to stormy. 

“good,” valtor started, “because we need to start making a new plan.” 

icy looked up to him and furrowed her brows in confusion. he hadn’t talked about that yet at all. sure, they had collected their ideas when they had been bored and yes, they had searched for new spells to  _ perhaps _ use. but they had known it would take a while, his magic hadn’t worked for almost a month. of course, now it  _ did  _ work again but…  _ but what? _

“now?” she asked. 

“do you want to give them another month to prepare?” he asked back and she shook her head. 

“no but… are you sure you can fight again? you have your powers back for what now, two weeks? don’t you think we should wait a little longer?” 

he looked at her confused, “i’m fine. i might not be as strong as in the other fights but we can do this if the plan is good,” he said. 

she shrugged, “if you say so.” 

no, she definitely wasn’t done yet. but she didn’t want to fight with him now. 

“bloom having her enchantix is the biggest problem we have to overcome,” darcy said and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“obviously. we need more help against the fairies this time. layla was right, putting you against two, respectively three enchantix fairies was too much,” valtor muttered, shutting his book and putting it next to him. 

“i can ask riven. he didn’t have to blow his cover last time, maybe now is the best chance,” darcy suggested.

icy frowned, “you think he’d fight his friends directly?”

“calling them  _ ‘his friends’ _ is a little insulting. he hates them. and yes, he would.”

“well, i think sometimes the old plan is the best new plan,” icy said, sitting up straight and folding her arms. 

“elaborate, please?” stormy replied. 

“i think we should stick to parting the fairies into groups and attacking them separately. riven could help, maybe diaspro could help too. no one is fighting alone.”

valtor nodded, “yes, i think that would work best too.” 

“so, the same spell to separate them but we have help?” darcy concluded.

“exactly.” 

**•••**

— she was already lying in bed when he came back from showering. 

he casually dried his hair with magic and dressed for sleeping. she knew he was trying to make a point. they hadn’t really talked after their discussion about the plan. he was trying to show her that his magic worked  _ perfectly fine _ \- at least for his current conditions. 

and yes, she believed him. she knew he was becoming better every day. 

_ of course _ .

she was just not really happy about him fighting against bloom so soon. it could drain all of his energy. it could fucking kill him and she didn’t want that happening. 

“i know what you’re doing,” she said. 

he turned around to her, crossing his arms. 

“then i don’t understand your point." 

icy put her phone away and sat up, looking sternly at him. 

“my point is that we don’t have any idea how powerful bloom is now that she has her enchantix. she could kill you with the first spell, who knows?” she told him. 

he shrugged, “or she could just be able to fight me a little longer than normal,” he said, “i’m slowly starting to think you don’t want to win anymore.”

“of course i want to win, just as much as you do,” she argued, “i’m just not sure yet if we’re able to win like this. bloom has the biggest advantage she’s ever had. what do we have? the water stars and your weakened powers.” 

for a moment, he looked as if he wanted to argue against that. he already opened his mouth, then stopped and stayed silent, obviously thinking about something. 

she didn’t care. he didn’t want to understand she was simply worrying about him? fine.  _ fine _ . 

“then we need to give ourselves an advantage,” he said, sounding as if he found  _ the one way _ to win this entire fight without even moving a finger. 

she didn’t get what he was getting at.

“sorry?”

“you said bloom has an advantage and we don’t. maybe that’s the key. we need to have an advantage for us which is a disadvantage for them.” 

“i still have no idea what you’re getting at,” she admitted. 

he looked at her, “if you’d fight against me, what would you use as an advantage to win?” he asked. 

she shook her head and shrugged, “your weakness, your pace, the surroundings, your--”

“wait. surroundings.”

“well if we’d be around fire, you’d have it easier but if we’re… wait, i think i get it,” she said, “if our surroundings are harming bloom, then we can use that to our advantage.” 

he sat down on the bed, “exactly. now we have to find out what.” 

“the same things that harm bloom would harm you. i’m both of your opposite. so, something cold, preferably with snow,” she said. 

“domino,” he suggested, “it’s incredibly cold, there’s a lot of snow  _ and  _ we have the emotional advantage.”

“i know a spell that can protect you from the cold,” she said. 

he smiled and kissed her, caressing her cheek. 

she smiled weakly, “i still think you shouldn’t fight alone against bloom. i’ll fight her. and once she’s weak enough, you help me.” 

he sighed, “i’m not standing by and doing nothing. i’ll help you but i won’t fight her directly. okay?” he asked. 

she nodded and smiled, kissing him again. 

maybe this fight wouldn’t go down terribly after all. 


	14. Chapter 14

**monday, may 6.**

— she peacefully watched the snow falling down from the sky.

the weather and the temperatures were  _ beautiful _ . at least for her.

valtor, darcy and stormy were protected by her spell right now, yes, but they  _ hated _ seeing the snow falling down. she didn’t understand them at all. it was calming her, especially now that they were preparing for  _ the fight _ . 

“are we done?” stormy asked, growing a little impatient. 

diaspro stood next to her in her fairy form. she glowed with a redish light, her own protection spell. icy said she could only use the spell on three people or she would risk being a lot  _ less _ powerful in the fight against bloom. riven wore a uniform from red fountain, which, according to him, possessed a heating system, so he’d be safe from the cold too. 

darcy nodded, “the spell is done, we only need to bring them here now.”

this was another advantage, one stormy had brought up. 

waking the fairies in the middle of the night and teleporting them here, to domino. they weren’t fully awake, they still had to transform, they were freezing. the perfect advantage for them. 

“good. everybody get into position,” valtor ordered. 

darcy teleported riven and herself, stormy and diaspro flew away. icy turned around to valtor. he was focused on something but she didn’t know what exactly. he didn’t have to do anything right now. darcy was doing the teleporting, he just had to stay back and wait. 

“are you okay?” she asked and reached for his tensed hand. 

he looked down at her and smiled weakly, then nodded, “just be careful,” he muttered.

“i will” she said, kissed him and turned back around.

she heard him hiding somewhere in a safe distance but not too far away. and then she waited. until she felt a shift in the environment's magic. she knew it was darcy. 

it only took a few seconds until she saw bloom landing on the cold, hard ground in front of her. dressed in her  _ horrible _ baby pink pyjamas. 

she groaned, slowly getting on her knees and looking up. if icy could’ve stopped the time just to see bloom’s face of realisation all over again, she would’ve.

“good morning,” she mocked. 

bloom slowly got up on her feet, getting into some fighting position. in whatever way  _ that _ would be helpful while she was not transformed and probably freezing, icy had no idea. 

“are you guys finally ready for a rematch?” bloom asked. 

icy tilted her head and grinned, “don’t worry, we were just trying to give you some preparation time.” 

bloom narrowed her eyes and transformed quickly, shooting the first fire balls at icy as soon as she was finished. she remembered what valtor had once taught her - absorbing and redirecting magic. it was a lot more complicated now that she was fighting  _ bloom _ , her opposite, but she was successful eventually. 

she shot the fire balls back at bloom, giving them some of her own ice magic. bloom jumped out of the way, attacking again. this time with a long and  _ hot _ ray of fire. the snow below her was melting. icy created a shield that would reflect the attack, bringing the ray back to bloom. 

then it was her time to attack: millions of tiny and sharp ice shards made their way to bloom. she could protect herself from a lot of them but a few cut her skin, leaving small but  _ burning _ scratches on her arms. 

“you already recognised where we are?” icy asked casually while shielding another of bloom’s fiery attacks.

she didn’t answer but the  _ furious _ and deadly glance she gave her said more than words. yes, she had noticed. and she damn well knew. 

“you know what valtor told me the other day?” she went on while creating a blizzard with the help of all the snow around her. her surroundings were helping her. “your sister actually owned the dragon flame but your father wanted to protect her. so when you were born and the ancestral witches attacked your home, he made daphne transfer the dragon flame to  _ you _ . so she’d be safe,” she said and smirked, “your father cared about you so little that he gave you the power the ancestral witches were after just to protect your big sister.  _ poor you _ ,”

it was a lie. valtor hadn’t told her that at all, she had just made it up to mock bloom and make her angry. because angry people were careless and made mistakes. 

it also didn’t matter if it was a lie or not, as long as bloom believed it. 

and judging by her current expression, she believed her. 

by the dragon, she was so naive. but good for her. 

bloom started to glow  _ dangerously _ orange and icy knew she should be really careful now or she’d be fucked. she protected herself behind a shield of pure ice and bloom let her magic  _ explode _ . 

a shock wave followed and icy’s back hit one of the dead trees behind her. she groaned when slipping down on the ground. other than that, nothing had happened though. she was unhurt. 

“i would be  _ really fucking careful _ with the things you’re saying,” bloom threatened and icy got up slowly, smirking while doing so. she brushed the snow from her clothes. 

“and why would i do that?”

bloom looked at her with a dead serious face, “i know valtor’s hiding somewhere close. he wouldn’t leave  _ you _ alone, now would he?”

icy frowned. she noticed bloom was getting at something but she couldn’t exactly tell what it was yet. 

“what are you talking about?” she asked. 

“i know he lost his powers when he saved you from the attack. that’s why you’re fighting and not him. but you need him to defeat me. he’s hiding. but he’d come here and save you if you were in danger,” bloom said. 

icy smirked, crossing her arms, “well, good thing i’m not in danger right now,” she said, “as for you, i wouldn’t be so sure.”

bloom attacked so quickly she wasn’t able to react. she hit the tree again, this time a lot harder than before. 

bloom stood right in front of her, her hand wrapped around her neck, the other one holding a burning flame. 

_ she was stupid. _

she couldn’t move right now, the pain of the collision had numbed her limbs. she saw the flame bloom was holding, come closer, and closer -  _ closer. _

she fell down on her knees in front of the tree. 

bloom held her hands against her ears, a painful expression on her face. icy furrowed her brows, not sure what was going on. surely, she knew this was valtor’s doing. but  _ what _ was he doing?

_ ‘what is this?’ _

_ ‘one of darcy’s illusion spells. she’s seeing my memories of the fight on domino.’ _

he was brilliant. 

icy attacked bloom, an ice storm after ice shards. her attacks were a bit weaker, now that she had been fought back and  _ still _ had to focus on keeping darcy, stormy and valtor safe from the cold. nonetheless, she was able to push bloom further back, with each spell a little more. 

she tried to fight back, shooting fire balls at icy. but she couldn’t aim with valtor’s spell on her. and they were even weaker than her own attacks. 

she shot a simple energy ball at bloom, aiming at her stomach. the fairy fell down on the ground, groaning when she hit the hard floor with her head. 

_ ‘use the water stars, i can take care of her then.’ _ valtor said in her head. 

yes, she already thought about that.

she took the water stars, charged a spell and  _ shot _ . 

bloom groaned and fell unconscious. icy grinned and with the help of the ice beneath them, she brought bloom’s body into a kneeling position, freezing her legs and hands on the ground. 

she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around, seeing valtor standing next to her and looking at her proudly. 

it took her a moment to notice  _ this was the end _ and they had  _ won _ . 

almost. 

valtor moved in front of bloom, hovering his hand in front of her chest, closing his eyes and  _ waiting.  _ she watched him from a safe distance. it took a moment until a little but intense flame was floating in the air, above his hand. she had already seen it in the last fight - bloom had threatened valtor with it. it was her essence, everything they needed to put an end to her.

but valtor hesitated and turned around to her. she expected him to close his hand or extinguish it. all he did was to hold the hand to his chest, absorbing the flame.

it took her a moment to understand what he was doing. he absorbed bloom’s powers, leaving her alive but giving him power. he would be back at full strength. 

“why did you do that?” she asked when he walked back at her. 

he grinned and put his hands on a wound on her arm that she hadn’t even noticed. 

“well, for one i want my magic back and i know you might have plans for what to do with her,” he said and she couldn’t help but to smirk.

_ yes _ , she  _ did _ have plans. she had made up her mind about what she could do with bloom if he left her alive. she smiled and kissed him, stroking his cheek with her hand. 

_ they won _ .


	15. epilouge

**tuesday, may 7.**

  
  


— when he woke up, he felt genuinely  _ good _ for the first time in decades. 

he felt her bare back pressed against his body, his arm wrapped around her waist. he smiled. everything was  _ perfect. _ everything was how it was supposed to be. 

they had won. most of the winx had died yesterday. bloom was magicless, locked away for all eternity. there was nothing and no one stopping them from ruling. 

and,  _ most importantly _ , he had her. she was safe, healthy and happy. 

he brushed her hair from her neck and softly kissed her there. she was awake, he noticed when she moved her head to his. 

“good morning,” he whispered and kissed her neck again. 

she turned around this time, rolling on her back and smiling up at him. she looked a little sleepy, her eyes were still heavy. she didn’t answer him but wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss him. 

she continued to smile at him even after she had parted from him. 

“we should get ready,” he muttered while running his hand through her hair. 

“i could actually just stay in bed for a little longer,” she sighed and moved both of her hands down his arms.

he grinned, “we can do that for the rest of the day, we just need to have the coronation and declaration,” he said and kissed her forehead.

“hm, fair,” she whispered and smiled, let go of him and sat up. 

“what will you wear?” he asked curiously while watching her stretching and standing up. 

she grinned at him, “you’ll see,” she said, taking  _ something _ out of the wardrobe and leaving for the bathroom. 

he was curious and thought about following her for a second but then he decided it would be better as a surprise. after all, he knew she’d look beautiful, no matter how she looked.

he got up too, walking to the wardrobe and taking a white shirt and black trouser from it. he got dressed quickly and focused on making his hair look perfect. 

he just finished putting on his shoes and searching for his coat when she opened the bathroom door and came out. 

it took him a moment until he turned around. she looked  _ stunning _ . a dark blue off-shoulder dress, the fabric fading into little blue ice shards around her shoulders and cleavage. she wore a small, silver necklace and earrings that looked like ice. she had her hair tied back in the most complicated yet beautiful way he had ever seen. 

she was  _ gorgeous. _

he smiled and held out a hand for her. she took it and smiled at him.

“you look beautiful,” he muttered, now being in  _ awe _ . 

she grinned, “you don’t look bad yourself,” she said. “how many kingdoms have already surrendered, what do you think?”

she was so excited about this and he  _ loved _ it. 

he loved her. 

now it was safe. now he could say it. they were alive, they had won. they’d never fail again. 

“i’m not sure. eraklyon most certainly, after you gave diaspro the chance to kill king erendor,” he said, his mind somewhere else. 

she kissed him briefly, still grinning, “there’s only one way to find out,” she said and pulled him towards the door, “come on.”

“wait,” he said, waiting for her to turn around. 

she looked at him attentively. her beautiful, clear eyes locked with his. she was waiting for him to say something and he felt nervous.  _ so nervous _ . he didn’t think he ever felt like this before, not once in all his life. she was making him feel things he didn’t think were possible. and he damn well let her because it felt amazing. 

he held her hand a little tighter and looked her straight in the eyes, then said in a both honest and nervous voice,

“ _ i love you.” _

**~*~**

  
  
  


**_end._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everyone! 
> 
> thank you all for reading this story to the end! :) i really appreciate all of the comments, kudos and bookmarks you left on this story. <3 
> 
> sad it's over but every ending is also a new beginning! :)
> 
> stay safe~


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